Not only do i have a tremendous distaste for the font of this book, the texture of the pages was such that i needed to wear plastic gloves in order to avoid paper burn. o'Brien's backseat politics are best left for the playground. rather than trying to peddle his ideas as something a person might want to hear, the author should invest in something to keep his mouth closed and his fingers away from a pen. Overall i wish i would have completed the rest of my "ally mcbeal: season 1" dvd, than read this trard.

John O'Brien's masterpiece is the 'Vagina Monologue' of the modern political age. Most books have more fluff than a wookie, but this book is all Skywalker. The insightful jabber in this book will surely unite the bipartisan world. Democrats and Republicans will get along- dogs and cats living side by side as this book is spread across the grassroots of America. This book is clearly the best of his 27 books, the child prodigy has outdone himself again.

This is easily one of the best books I have ever read. John O'Brien's ideas are incredible. This book is a must read for anyone who cares about the state of this country. It is a book that changed my outlook on the way I look at this country.

Outstanding resource for functions, charts, and data management. I work in a large organization where data management is key. The 10+ chapters on functions with examples are extremely helpful...

We also have presentations on a monthly basis and the chart examples and chapters are analyst quality.. A great help and would strongly recommend. I've been able to generate one chart that actually is tied into all of our data so I can generate any report via a drop down menu... A great time saver...

Special Editions's Using Microsoft Excel 2002 by Patrick Blattner is well worth the investment. Working in marketing, I need to know how to use Excel. When I have questions, I need to be able to find the answers quickly and easily. This book is easy-to-use, thorough, and provides examples with descriptive text and screen shots depicting what I want to do, such as filling in a series, creating a spreadsheet with grouped data, and creating customized functions, in a business scenario.

Unlike lots of tech books which just take you thru the menus and cmds, this book actually teaches you how to use Excel's finer points in the context of real-world business applications. I found the explanation of pivot tables and the concrete examples employed to be the best I've encountered. The tips on charting have definitely improved the appearance of my reporting products. The reference section on functions comprehensive and something I frequently refer to. Highly recommended.

Darker than Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and more upbeat than Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," "The Pigeon" explores the internal crisis and ultimate redemption of Jonathan Noel. Noel is a man who up until now has lead a very organized, mundane, non-spectacular life in which his main goal is to avoid notice. He has concluded that " you cannot depend on people, and that you can live in peace only if you keep them at arm's length." One morning a pigeon appears at his doorway, shattering his careful calm routine and throwing him into a tailspin. Over the next 24 hours he undergoes a complete awakening. As "The Pigeon" opens he is almost a non-person; by the end of the book he has learned to enjoy his meager life. In a sense, "The Pigeon" is almost "Mrs. Dalloway," read backwards.

I liked "The Pigeon," though it reads like a play. I read an English translation but the language and descriptions were rich and evocative. Check it out of your library or find an old copy.

Located in contemporary Paris, "The Pigeon" is the story of an incident. A dull Frenchman discovers one day the unexpected presence of a pigeon in front of the small roomm he inhabits. This minuscule and seemingly irrelevant event adopts terrifying proportions in the mind of the man, becoming a grotesque nightmare.

As a master of allusion and obsession, Suskind reveals once more, in this parable of everyday life, his gift for building a metaphor of the existential background of humans. It shows that our life usually holds to rutines so fragile, that a simple disturbance may force us to rethink everything from the start. It is a short book, but an intriguing and absurd tale. The absurd, seems to say Suskind, is present in the most simple things that happen every day.

Patrick Suskind's The Pigeon is a melancholy tale of one man's struggle to cope with a small change in his beloved daily routine - the appearance of a pigeon (and its accompanying foulness) in the hallway of his apartment building. The pigeon's appearance begins a chain of misfortunes throughout the day, as the man (a bank security guard) attempts to calm himself.

Although the book can be a little preachy, John Patrick takes you thoroughly through every aspect of the game. If you want to get serious about craps, this is the book to read. Not for aggressive gamblers who want to hit it big overnight.

John Patrick is probably one of the most controversial gambling authors in America. My personal opinion is that he is sexist and egotistical --- but if you have ever stood at a craps table for longer than ten minutes, you just can't argue with his Big Four and Little Three. There is a lot of repetition in both this book and the Advanced Craps book, but that's because we gamblers tend to be greedy and undisciplined, and it takes someone telling us something TWENTY TIMES before we get it through our thick heads. Every time I have lost big, it has been because I have violated one of John's cardinal rules. The systems? Well, no system is perfect, so take them or leave them, but memorize the Big Four, Little Three, and all the information that goes with them. (Hopefully, John has worked out his few editing snafu's by now...*grin*).

This is without a doubt John Patricks best book. If you are confused by the game of craps - read this book! If you play but find yourself losing in the end - read this book! If you think you are a good craps player - read this book and find out for sure! This books money management and discipline systems changed me from a pathetic gambler to one of, if not, the best in the casino. Do not go into a casino again without learning John's money management and discipline systems.

This is not a book for beginners! The exercises start at a challenging level and get harder. The illustrations are excellent but the prose is too much to read while trying to follow the instructions. There is no remedial instruction for someone who is having trouble with a particular stretch. All in all, a beautiful choice for advanced stretch or yoga enthusiasts only.

The word "yoga" is not mentioned anywhere in the title or on the covers of the book, but make no mistake, every "stretch" in this book is a yoga posture. This twist of labelling, however, doesn't take anything away from the fact that this is an excellent reference on how to stretch your body _using_ yoga postures. The book is entirely focused on increasing flexibility and fitness: No long discourses on chakras, spirituality, or benefits of a vegetarian diet in here; just detailed instructions on how to stretch in each pose accompanied by high-quality, annotated photographs that clearly show the correct body configuration. Note also that this is NOT a book that talks about the physiology of stretching or Golgi reflexes or the phys-ed approach to stretches. Go elsewhere for that kind of information. The stretches in here aren't designed to help you isolate a particular muscle so the descriptions are all high-level (e.g. "lumbar spine", "hip", "neck").

As one reviewer has already noted, the poses (even in the beginner sequence) are advanced. Fortunately, the authors explain and illustrate ways to make the poses easier using props with each description of the posture. Here's where my one nitpick comes in: if you look in the back of the book under "Stretching for Sport", you'll find that the authors are shown using props to ease stretches in ways that weren't covered back in the main section of the book (e.g. there's a way to ease the Inverted Stretch using a chair instead of a wall). It would have been great if descriptions for these other prop uses could have been included in the description chapters, but the pictures are clear enough that you can figure out what to do regardless.

I have a couple of yoga books and videos, but this is the reference I keep coming back to when I want to make sure I've got the posture right or find another way to stretch my hamstrings.

I found this book very helpful when I decided to incorporate stretching/strengthing to my workout routine without having to sign up for a costly class. There is a learning curve and anyone using this book should be prepared to take some time to learn the stretches - it won't happen overnight. The stretches are clearly described in a step-by-step manner with pictures and "easing the stretch" options to help people of all fitness levels. I particularly appreciated the 30 minute routines so I didn't have to decide which stretches to perform in what order. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

I disagree with the previous, positive reviews. I just finished the book and came away very unsatisfied.

The subject matter was appealing because I really like the horror genre. The creation of a fictious background storyline surrounding the eruption of Mount St. Helen's was a nice twist. However, Whalen has absolutely no talent for developing consistent characters. He is constantly flip-flopping them between being smart, then scatter-brained; emotional, then totally impassive; dominant, then submissive. A couple of examples. In one, the main character, John Winter, is awakened by an earthquake and partial eruption of the mountain. Whalen clearly indicates that this really frightened Winter. But, how does he react? He decides to take a shower, get dressed and have some breakfast. In another, Winter is sure that the men who are looking to kill him are in town and may have an idea of where he is. So what does our supposedly highly intelligent protagonist do? He decides he needs a shower. What? This guy never saw psycho?

Whalen also spends a lot of time introducing minor characters at the beginning of a chapter only to kill them off by the end. If he's trying to make the reader care about the character (one way or the other), he failed miserably. In fact, my favorite 'character' was the dog!

I could go on and on. I'm just glad I picked up the book from an 88 cent bin and didn't pay list price.

this was one of my favourite book

This would make a great movie. Mt. St. Helen's volcano will never be another eruption due seismic forces. Whalen writes scary books with heart rendering characters. For more information about this author (a lot more) e mail me. Joan (rjhue@bossig.com)

It is a wonderful idea to make available recordings of great speeches. I hope we have more of this in the future.
In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.

I have listened to this collection twice now, both times with pleasure. Hearing the acutal voices of Amelia Earhart, Rev. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong made a deeper connection than simply reading their words. The collection showcases different subjects and many times contrasts opposing viewpoints of the ideas. This volume is a fantastic introduction to the moving ideals and sometimes sad truths that have influenced Western Civilization.

John Bury published his life of St. Patrick in 1905, and the Dover edition is an unabridged republication of that work. It includes an introduction written by Liam de Paor in 1998. It is regarded as a classic in the study of St. Patrick and provided the generally accepted interpretation of his life up until the publication in 1942 of a lecture by T.F. O'Rahilly entitled "The Two Patricks." There have been significant and substantial changes in the academic understanding of St. Patrick since the publication of John Bury's work. As Liam de Paor notes, "The perspective provided by the research of the present century mainly is based on a more rigorous criticism of the Irish sources. We can no longer, for example, take Irish fifth-century annals as contemporary, or even near contemporary, with the events they record. They are reconstructions, embodying much guesswork, made by scholars and disputants of the seventh and eighth centuries, who sought to cast their interpretation of earlier times in annalistic form. Nor can we take at face value the work of seventh-century hagiographers such as Muirchu and Tirechan, both of whom produced accounts of Patrick in the service of the claims of Armagh. Bury, of course, by his training and background, well understood the importance of the criticism of sources. However, he did not have available the results of the work on early Irish texts that has been done by numerous scholars over the past ninety years, and he was led into undue reliance on secondary and tertiary sources for want of better ones. Our picture of fifth-century Ireland is very different now from what it was at the start of the twentieth century." (pp. xix - xx)

The book is 404 pages long excluding the introduction and preface and consists of four main sections. The first section is 224 pages long: Bury's account and discussion of St. Patrick's life, its significance and context. The print is large and considered by itself this section could serve as a quick introduction to the basic narrative of St. Patrick's life and times. However, as de Paor notes, the scholarship on this subject has progressed significantly since 1905 and there were several instances where I had wished that the author had explored his subject further. For example, it appears that St. Patrick had designated funds for the manumission of Christian slaves in Ireland and had established rules for the use thereof. Pope Gregory apparently OK'd this procedure for use in Britain as well. Was this standard procedure for proselytizing missions in the 5th Century AD or was it confined to the far reaches of the occident? Were there any Papal rulings on the institution of slavery or was this just a tactic used in the far West, perhaps one that originated with St. Patrick given that much of his youth was spent as a captive sold into slavery? In any case, at least for me, there were several instances where I supposed the author presumed his audience was familiar with more of the context of those times than I think most general readers could be reasonably expected to know.

Pages 295 to 391 are Appendices A - C: notes on the sources, notes on the text, and extended discussions on particularly vexing questions, respectively. The print for these is quite small, and there are a number of difficulties for the general reader. To begin with, readers without Latin will find it difficult to tease out useful information from these as much of the critical evidence is presented in Latin which is not translated. (The main narrative also contains Latin, but I think the context makes it comprehensible.) There is also some -- though not much -- ancient Greek. Also, the text itself infrequently indicates when you should refer to the endnotes and sometimes refers you to endnotes that do not exist. The maps included do not highlight those places in Ireland that St. Patrick visited, there is no map for Britain or Gaul (which are important elements of the story), no line indicating the suggested paths St. Patrick took and no chronology. Moreover, since much of the endnotes are concerned with scholarly disputes that were current in 1905, which may or may not have much relevance to the current discussion, I imagine that they are of much more moment to those interested in the historiography of the study of St. Patrick in the early 20th century than they are to generalists like myself.

To sum up, I think that the general reader will profit from Bury's basic account of St. Patrick's life, but should be aware that much of the scholarship is outdated and that much of the supporting notes will be dated and unintelligible to him if he does not know Latin. Paor, in the introduction, mentions two studies "which should be consulted by the serious inquirer into these matters" (p. xix), R.P.C. Hanson's "St. Patrick--His Origins and Career" and E.A. Thompson's "Who Was St. Patrick?", but I cannot vouch for their accessibility to the general reader because I have not read them. Bury's index is good and comprehensive.

As he does with most of his work, Bury deserves more accolades for this critical study into St. Patrick and the varied evidence that exists to explain his life and times. Shrouded in mystery and legend, much of this "evidence" can only be trusted to a certain degree or must be considered within the broader context of the evidence's own origins, and it is this realization that Bury uses to craft the first modern and critical assessment of Patrick. Each unique source is discussed as to what its individual reliability and relevance is, then all of the specifics on this study are masterfully organized in a thorough appendix of which Bury could have been proud.
With this critical evaluation method forming the basis for Bury's study, the end result is a very readable and engaging overview into the life of St. Patrich and the christianization of Ireland, a process that has been largely simplified and therefore obscured by a wealth of legends and myths. As interesting and valuable as these myths are for their own purposes, they cannot meet the needs of the true objective historian, and for this person Bury presents the original alternative from obscurity to scholarship.
Though more recent literature on the subject exists, the general study by Bury still stands as a valuable and respectable Patrick source and I feel comfortable advising anyone with an interest in Irish or also Christianity's early history to give it a look.
Like always, Bury's book is a winner indeed.

Out of the millions of people who lived and died in the fifth century A.D., the names of only two are widely recognized throughout the English-speaking world today: Attila the Hun and St. Patrick. And Attila isn't commemorated by an annual day of remembrance that is observed from Temple Bar to the Golden Gate. This book, authored nearly a century ago by a distinguished British historian of Late Antiquity, seeks to recover the real Patrick from the legends and haze (perhaps induced from drinking too much green beer?) that have come to surround him.

Bury's expertise in the late Roman Empire (he is better known today for a series of the lectures, "The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians" and a two-volume history of the later Roman Empire from 395-565 A.D.) serves him well in this exploration of the world of St. Patrick. Patrick was born in western Britain in the late 4th century, probably around 388-390 A.D. At this time, Britain was still a distant province of the Roman Empire, but it was being rapidly being stripped of its defensive troops in order to meet the more central threat to the Empire presented by barbarian invaders like Alaric and the Visigoths. These grand historical currents impacted Patrick's life very directly at the time of his sixteenth birthday, around the years 404-05 A.D. Niall, High King of Ireland, took advantage of Britain's weakened defenses to launch a piratical raid up the Severn estuary. Patrick was captured and carried off into slavery as a prize of war.

For some six or seven years, Patrick was assigned to watch over the livestock of his new master in the wilds of sparsely populated western Connaught -- very likely, Bury thinks, on the prominent mountain and pilgrimage site that to this day is known as Croagh Patrick. His servitude lasted for six or seven years, during which time he developed the passionate Christian faith that determined the course of the rest of his life. Then he managed to escape and made his way to one of the ports along the country's southeastern coast, where he was taken aboard a ship bound for Gaul.

Curiously, after reaching Gaul, Patrick made no immediate effort to return home. He became a monk for a number of years at the monastery of Lerins, on an island off the southern coast of France. Later, he continued his religious training and was ordained as a deacon at Auxerre, also in Gaul. By the time he finally returned home for a visit, his parents were dead, and he seems to have found nothing in west England to hold him there. He returned to Auxerre, where he was selected for the mission that made his name immortal in 432 A.D.

Bury establishes that the traditional idea that Patrick brought Christianity to a land that previously knew nothing but idol-worship and the sorcery of Druid priests is very much wide of the mark. There already seem to have been extensive Christian communities in Ireland at the time, particularly in the southeastern part of the country. Christianity had enormous prestige throughout the European world at the time because of its adoption as the ruling faith of the Roman Empire; Patrick's contemporaries of course could not foresee that its western portions would be carved up among various Germanic invaders within a few decades. Patrick was not even the first emissary dispatched by the Roman church to Ireland; a predecessor had gone out a year or two earlier, but died quickly of disease. Bury concludes that Patrick's mission was as much concerned with seeing to the organization of the existing Irish churches as it was with pursuing conversion efforts in the northern and western reaches of the island.

Patrick, however, was haunted by thoughts of the children of the north whose lack of baptism condemned them to eternal damnation under well-established Christian doctrine (notably promulgated and defended by St. Augustine only a few years earlier). He embarked for the region of Dalriada on Ireland's northeast coast, in an area (Down) now part of Ulster. He began his missionary efforts there and carried them forward over the years that followed in a broad band stretching across the country from the valley of the Boyne in the east to Clew Bay in the west. In later years, there were also some efforts in Munster and Leinster.

Bury notes that Patrick faced opposition from the Druid priests and sometimes was in physical danger, but you are left with a sense that his missionary efforts were significantly less perilous than those of the first clerics who undertook the conversion of the Slavs and Balts east of the Elbe half a millenium later. One major king, although personally disinclined to the new religion, readily granted Patrick land upon which to build houses of worship. The lack of self-confidence that afflicted adherents of the traditional religion was most clearly delineated by the fate of Patrick's former master, a chieftain named Miliucc. Hearing that his former slave was coming in an effort to convert him to the new religion, and "seized by a strange alarm lest his former slave should by some irresistible spell constrain him to embrace the new religion against his will," he gathered all his possessions together in a funeral pyre and immolated himself. The sight of the resulting conflagration -- a horrifying result of his own good intentions -- greeted Patrick as he approached from the south, and must have seared his soul forever.

Patrick lived long enough to see his new converts murdered and kidnapped by Christian raiding parties from across the Irish Sea, and Bury suggests that his final years may have been troubled by disllusionment. This book is scholarly, thorough (there are 165 pages of appendices discussing sources and various controversies), and ultimately quite moving. My only objection is that Bury is too sober a historian to tell you where the legend about driving the snakes out of Ireland came from!

With its stunningly original illustrations and long-named hero, I expected a real find. Instead I discovered a tedious one-joke story featuring a sadistic teacher. Oh, I know, it's all meant as fun, but there was nothing amusing about a boy forced to repeat 400 times "I must not tell lies about lions and I must not tear my trousers," and who is threatened with a beating.

The book is neither very funny nor wise. There are so many outstanding children's books; this is not one of them.

We live in Japan. My boys, who, unlike most Japanese children, have a middle name, are tickled when I read off this boy`s FOUR. John Patrick Norman McHennessy not only has an amazingly long name, but he is always late. (Definitely something they can identify with.) It is not his fault, but because of the myriad of fantastic occurrances which befall him "on the road to learn." He perseverantly keeps on going, everyday. He is always truthful, even when it would be easier to lie and avoid chastisement from Sir, who always accuses him of prevarication and metes out some dreadful punishments. In fact, Sir gets bigger and scarier-looking with each appearance, until the tables are turned in a most satisfying denoument. He may be too frightening for wee ones, but my five- and seven-year old boys love it.

I'm not sure if preschoolers would get this, but primary grade children enjoy this story where the child triumphs over the teacher in the end! Even groups who are restless find the humor in this situation!

Apparently, Amazon.com has some sort of private agreement with the publisher, as the first review that I wrote has been censored. This "book" is without merit. Two thirds of the content is filler - useless anecdotes that won't lead to putting any money in your pocket. The money management "system" proposed by the author is statistically unsound. If you want a solid sports betting primer, pass on this title and buy "The Complete Book of Sports Betting" by Jack Moore. For more in-depth info, obtain any work written by Bob McCune other than the "Gambling Times" book.

If you're looking for "get-rich-quick" systems on sports betting, then look elsewhere (and you'll be looking for a *long* time, too!). But, for the average income gambler like myself, you'll make good use of the author's betting theories, money management and discipline guidelines. Filled with dozens of examples, John Patrick's book on one of the most popular forms of gambling explains how to manage your money and turn a profit simultaneously at this exciting game of chance. Read it, digest it and follow it. You'll be glad you did.

This is the first of John Patrick's books I have read. From other comments, you either love or hate his writing style. I think he is hilarious while also very informative. All I have to say about this book is, betting with the money management ideas he presents, I ended up positive where I have so many times previously ended up negative on the same number of wins. If you bet on sports, buy this book!