When I started training in Family practice I searched for a large reference book to study from. I choose this text because it was written so well. The Language is direct, the explanations are clear and the advice is well founded. Now that I am in training the book is not as helpful as I hoped. Most of the time I find the treatment on any given topic too shallow for what I have to learn. I belive this is the result of a compromise between size and completness. I now wish I had saved my money and bought three textbooks - Harrison, Williams and Nelson as opposed to trying to find one book to cover all of internal medicine, obstetrics, and pediatrics.

This book is designed in a practical and understandable approach to family practice. It is an excellent text and a comprehensive reference especially useful for a nurse practitioner/graduate student in family practice. Not only does it provide treatment and management of common medical conditions but also includes psychosocial aspects of caring for clients and their families.

GURPS Y2K seems poised to be a good sourcebook for post-apocalyptic role-playing. Don't be put off by the name - this book contains much more than just the millennium bug.

Starting with a chapter on Y2K (which we know on 20-20 hindsight never became the calamity that some were predicting), there are ideas in this book for everything from a complete world-wide computer shutdown, to "Mad Max" type worlds, and even the biblical "Judgement Day", along with several others. There's also a section on a super-hero world suffering from post-apocalypse blues.

The "sidebars" (sections of the book along the sides of each page) contain even more material that can be used to put your game world in a state of chaos. Some of these sidebars beg to be put into whole worlds of their own.

But the book suffers slightly when it reads a little like a collection of articles about post-apocalypse scenarios in gaming, rather than a single world presented in RPG terms. The =nine= authors each contributed a section or two to this book, and only the excellent effort by Sean Punch to put it all together under one roof keeps this book from being merely a collection of unrelated after Armageddon articles.

I'd still recommend this book for people wanting to see what their campaign world would look like after a major catastrophe, or for people wanting to explore what happens after.

Well, overall the book was pretty well made. It touched upon many of the common topics and settings for a post holocaust envirnoment including everything from minor computer glitches to the Biblical apacalypse and "Mad Max" and "The Postman" type situations. Even alien invasion was discussed in the essays. All seven authors of the book provided well written source matterial. Y2k also gives information on realistic rioting and anarchy.

There was one point I did not like about the book though. It would make many references to other GURPS source books, some of which were out of print, for more material on a subject. I feel that some of the writing was judt put in a advertisements and "plug" for other books.

Personally, I wish they had touched more on the "Mad Max," "Postman," and "Fallout" (a post-apacalyptic computer game) scenarios, but I do realize that the book was created for post Y2K campaigns and that everyone does not like what I like.

Overall, though, the book provides good post distaster material.

NOTE: I wrote this review for the neurology pearls of wisdom, but the comments generally apply to the whole series. Since I thought the warning about some of the inaccuracies may be important for residents to look out for, I'm posting the review here as well. Please bear in mind this is a personal opinion only, but based on using probably every review text out there.

The idea behind Boston Medical Publishing's "pearls of wisdom" series (not to be confused with the higher quality Hanley & Belfus' "Pearls" Series)is a good one: publish a series of books in the various specialties that consist entirely of questions and answers in the various subtopics within those specialties.
However, the execution is weak for the following reasons:

1. Inaccuracies/mistakes.
I recently looked through the pediatrics text (latest, 2nd edition) at my bookshop (it was one of the few subjects initially available there). During some 20 minutes of browsing, I found 2 definite errors, and one ambiguity. Medicine is one field where I think there should be an *extremely* low tolerance for less than sterling writing. Note: the mistakes I found were not gray areas - they were not in complex management issues where there can be more than one right answer. These were clear cut factual errors that could have been avoided by more careful editing.

2. Poor referencing.
I know the authors state in their preface (which is a standard preface used in all the different subjects in the series!) that their intention wasn't to reference. But I think in this day and age of Evidence based medicine, literature citations are of paramount importance - not only to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the literature on all the topics, but so that readers may reach for the best review/original paper where necessary. In this regard, the "Secrets" series published by Hanley and Belfus are simply outstanding. They reference (often with multiple citations) each and every question/answer!!

3. Coverage
A minor, but not unimportant criticism is the coverage. I found that for the price I paid, the coverage of topics could have been better. If the authors could increase the questions by 2/3, I feel they will have a MUCH better book. Questions should stress more pathology, diagnostics (esp. diff diagnosis and clinical approach), and management.

4. For its shortcomings, the price (about USD 88.00) is astonishing. These books are merely a compilation of questions and answers for exam review, not comprehensive full colour textbooks! I do not understand why it should cost that much, when cost of production should be low - no pictures, no diagrams, no references even. Just one line questions and several line answers. The price is, i feel, unfair.

Conclusion:
Buy it only if:
1. You are prepared to double check every answer/statement against authoritative textbooks and the literature.
2. You can afford to throw your money on a good, but less than ideal product.
3. You want to get your hands on every review book available for revision purposes.

This is an excellent book! The information is in a quick question and answer format categorized by system (i.e. cardiology). This book is perfect for quick learning sessions when on call, as a break while studying, or for complete board preparation. I highly recommend it.

Comics like "Two-Fisted Science" serve nothing but a good purpose. They remind us that comics - like other art forms - can be about anything, and are not captives of the humor, fantasy and adventure genres.

A science-themed comic is especially appropriate, as the art-text combination inherent to comics would seem perfect for conveying complex/cosmic ideas. This collection features some terrific artists - notably Bernie Mireault, David Lasky, Colleen Doran and Sean Bieri - but I was a bit disappointed in the writing. Ottaviani's stories so intent on being unorthodox and different that they instead become meandering and confusing. Oftentimes I was unsure of what exactly was at stake for each story and why we should care about what was being told. And I would expect to actually learn more about SCIENCE in such a book. Also, the organization of the book into seemingly random sections, and the clumsy, unimaginative publication design diminished the effect.

I give the book high marks for effort, nice artwork, and the especially interesting portraits of Richard Feynman, but overall I'd rate "Two-Fisted Science" a noble failure.

We have given this book to various friends who have enjoyed the hard science topics in the 'comic book' format. We also have given it to nieces and nephews, who may not realize that they are being exposed to science and history. We can chat with them about it later, to see how much they have absorbed and to encourage them to reread it (comics are fun after all).

This book of monologues offers actors new and different monologues to use at auditions. So many of the audition books available rehash the same monologues over and over. These range from funny to moving, have various age appropriate options and not found elsewhere! This allows you to pick a great monologue and know, going in, that the casting director won't have heard it a thousand times already. My acting coach recommended this to me and I find it to be one of my best resources.

This book was developed from the proceedings of the first major professional symposium of aging with a spinal cord injury (held in Denver in 1991). The content is very comprehensive and focuses on different body systems and how normal aging of these systems effects the person with SCI, and how SCI may modify the aging process. While this book was published a number of years ago, it contains most of the research to date, and is based on collaborative data from major SCI centers in both the USA and England. While heavily focused on the medical model, it can be a valuable resource for both professionals working with people with SCI as well as those with SCI and their families.

really a good idea for a N America Campaign. Gives new powers to Elecktrokinetics. Great thing to have!

Yes it is a text book but it is also exceptionally easy to read. The authors were my profesors so it gave me a new look at the book, This book had many relational dialects and a statement of what good speaking is this is a good book if your serious about learning how to speak publicly

I just recieved my copy of "The Business Of Personal Training". I was recently certified by ACE to be a personal trainer and was interested in gathering more knowledge on how to get my business started.

This book was VERY HELPFUL! It explained how to establish client policies up front, so there are no misunderstandings down the road; it explained how to best handle clients with special needs; it offered a lot of insight into client/trainer relationships and how to best communicate and listen.

A lot of the book elaborated on what I already knew. So it was redundant for me, but still helpful. This book is perfect for someone studying to be a personal trainer or maybe just considering it as a career.

The best chapter, for me, was Marketing & Managing your business. It offered suggestions on how to "sell yourself" to perspective clients. How to price yourself, etc.

Overall, I found the book a useful tool and rated it 4 out of 5.

HardbodyMI@aol.com

This is an insightful and well-researched biography. Using sources previously kept within the Oates family, including a collection of over three hundred of Captain Oates' letters and portions of his Antarctic diary, Sue Limb and P. Cordingly recreate many details of the explorer's life and experiences which had previously been unknown. The result is an account focusing on Oates' LIFE, rather than his famous DEATH after reaching the South Pole with Scott in 1912. Oates is shown to be not a sublime martyr, but instead an intelligent, remarkable man grounded in reality, whose life ended too soon as a result of the blunders of others.