What can be better than reading the three greatest books--"The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers," and "The Return of the King"--ever written? Having a leather-bound volume with all three together is better. If you are a fan of the books or you have a loved one that is, this is the best edition to own. It has a big fold-out map in the back for reference, all the references you can think of, and a really neat red leather cover. I have had this edition for 20 years and it's still in excellent condition. Well worth the cost.

Outside of The Bible, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is simply the best book written in all of time. On a scale of 1 - 10 it is a 100. Nothing in any genre has ever been written better. Originally designed as a six-book, three-volume work, the wonderful people at Houghton Mifflin Company have published the books in an awesome one-volume, leather-bound collector's edition for easy reading (and many re-readings). I am only sixteen, but I am constantly reading, and let me tell you now that nobody beats Tolkien; and nothing beats The Lord of the Rings! Read this book and join the largest group of fans to ever walk the earth.

The story is just as beautiful as it was years ago when I read it for the first time. It needs no further review.

For those who are looking for an attractive, permanent edition, this is it. The fifty Alan Lee paintings are gorgeous, and the more you look at them the more you realize how carefully Lee put them together to remain faithful to the vision and the detail of the text. It's obvious he loved the books as much as the rest of us do. A keeper.

This book does not review you for the test. The practice exams are nothing like the actual SAT II; they are instead geared to judge how much you remember from the book's review section. Many answers to the questions from the practice exams are simply, a disturbing realization when one applies such knowledge to the rest of the book. The book does offer two hundred pages of detailed, if sometimes confused, historical review, so if one lacks a history textbook, this might do, but if you actually want to review for the SAT II in any meaningfull manner, don't read this book.

My son recently took the SAT II: American History and Social Studies subject test. He got a 780. He also got the highest score on his high school history exam. Besides taking a U.S. History class, he used only this book to prepare. Here are some of his comments below:

The most valuable information was the "comprehensive review course;" short summaries of various parts of U.S. history. Key terms, events, and people are identified and described. General themes are also explained. I found it helpful to go through the book and take notes on everything in the review section.

The book also contains six practice exams. These were not helpful, as they were not anything like the questions in the actual SAT II. There were also a number of errors in the answer key. The next edition of this book should focus on revising the practice exams.

Based on my performance on the test, however, I would say that this book was very helpful.

Overall, this is a comprehensive review of History. I also found the information to be helpful for my final US II exam.

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...

It seems Mr Duriez has also written a "Handbook" (the In-Print Encyclopedia) on C.S. Lewis. I don't know the quality of that work, but I do of this, and I mean to tell you about it. It might be good, but I would be wary of it, because this volume promises similar things but does not deliver its high promises. Instead, it offers SOME information, but nothing comprehensive.

The best counsel I can give unto you is to stay away from this book. There's a reason it's out of print people. It's only an average work, not even amounting to 300 pages. It's crossed reference, and in the end, feels like the work of someone wanting to cash in on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. There's much better works (such as Karen Wynn Fonstad, Paul H. Kocher, and David Day) on the literary creations of Tolkien. This book, calling itself comprehensive, is hardly that. This is the subtitle to make others look and buy - but withhold yourself on the hope that this is a first class volume. Its not. Its not a terrible volume, but neither is to an excellent volume. It's average, and for those who really want to get into the works of Tolkien, I would suggest to have this on your shelves along others, for different perspectives. But it's only use is that. On its own, no. With the money you were going to buy this, I'd recommend the much more interesting LETTERS OF J.R.R. Tolkien. If you are looking for something on Lewis' Narnia, go with Paul F. Ford's Companion to Narnia - a first-class reference work (the revised version). That's what a reference work is supposed to be like people, not this average affair.

Mike London

This book is good for somebody new to Tolkien. There are some more complete handbooks/encyclopedias for Tolkien's writings out there, but I think that a newbie might find them overwhelming.

This book is firmly focused on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, drawing information from Tolkien's other books only if it provides useful background to people or events in the Rings trilogy. For instance, there is background on an ancient marriage between a human man (Beren) and an elf woman (Luthien)that sets the stage for the romance between Aragorn and Arwen. My understanding is that Tolkien's other writings contain many other stories, characters, and settings that are not necessary for the understanding of the Rings trilogy.

The Rings movie was my introduction to Tolkien. Since then, I have read the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. I fully expect that as I continue to read Tolkien and continue to be fascinated by the world he created that I will buy a more complete handbook. But for now, this is a good source of information.

The ultimate conclusion of this report is that the closing and transfer of the Philadelphia naval should yard ought to be an example/model fo rthe US military in the future. Although not overwhelming, this report is a good introduction to the issue of base restructuring in the evolving structure of the post-Cold War military. As a case study, it has a lot of useful historical and analytical information that could be beneficial for policymakers in other situations.

It deals heavily with the procedures of the transfer. Though it does address them significantly, a deeper analysis of the political interests and conflicts surrounding this is as equally useful as any procedural analysis. Helpfully, the report also deals with the court issues that arose out of the case. Since it is a common tactic in these issues, understanding the uses and limits of the court system in these transfers is useful as well.

The report lacks an index, but the table of contents is extensive. A thorough bibliography is also included.

Overall a nice book that delivers what it promises. It shows most of the commands maple has for solving & plotting diff eq. although after I finished it , I couldn't help feeling a bit ripped off . Maybe because almost more than half the book is filled with exercises. Further it should be noted that this book was obviously written as a supplement with the boyce & Diprima book in mind . Although it doesn't cover the higher chapters eg . boundery value prob. & fourier series .All 'n all, a quick intro in Maple with the diff eq in mind .If you use the boyce & Diprima book, it's worth having around , if you need to use Maple effectively.

I read a review of the book in a industry magazine and it described it as useful for a professional financial advisor, as the title also implies. It turned out to be a pretty basic educational book with general but basic financial information. A good book for a beginner or someone who is just beginning to break into the financial services industry, but not necessarily for a seasoned professional.

Green approaches the Hobbit as serious literature and undertakes to apply archetypal analysis along with some of the tools of physcological criticism. Not much help for a casual reader, but if you have a background in literaty critical theory an interesting explanation of the symbolism of the work.

Green analyses the 2nd edition text of the Hobbit without reference to its sequal, The Lord of the Rings. Those wanting more information about Hobbits or their world must look elsewhere. But if you already understand the plot and are seeking to probe more deeply within the context of medern literary theories, this book may well form a part (though not an overly large one) of that journey.

This book includes a brief biography, a brief summary of Tolkien's possible influences, an explanation of the creation of Tolkien's mythology and created languages and critical readings of most of his stories, including such small pieces as "Leaf by Niggle" and "The Father Christmas Letters." Overall, I'd have to say that more value can be gotten from reading the actual works of Tolkien, his letters, and the excellant biography written by Humphry Carpenter to get the best overall picture. It is, however, a valuable resource if all one needs is an adequate basic summary of the author and his stories. The style is informal and therefore quite readable, but sometimes dry and packed full of the usual(and by now, tiresome) anecdotes about Tolkien's dislike of allegory, his dissaproval of people who like to psycho-analyze his stories, and his disapproval of French food. This book would be a good source if a person under the college level wanted to do a nice report on Tolkien.

If you are aiming for a B, or a B+ in your Con Law Class, I recommend that you stick to your class notes, and supplement your classnotes with a Nutshell.

This hornbook is a meandering exposition of Con Law. You would be better off sticking with a close analysis of actual cases and your class notes.

Finally: as noted by reviewer below, this hornbook is marred by ridiculously large number of typographical errors. Did anyone proof read the galleys? Shame on West Group. Copy editing errors include: typos (treaties v. treaties), missing words (too many to mention), line-spacing problems. Go to the back of the book and look for page numbers for "injunction"--check out how injunction is spelled.

Gentle Reviewer

A good overview of the subject, but for a more comprehensive text with relevant arguments that would help a one L in class, get Tribe's American Constitutional history.

This Hornbook provides a wonderful overview of constitutional law. It strikes the balance between an indepth study and a superficial review. It imparts a sense of the history of constitutional law, while still providing an indepth analysis of the most important cases. It is well written and easy to follow.

I used this study aid to much success in my constitutional law class.