This is an excellent buy. Easy to understand for someone who finds most tax information baffling. I finally figured out that municipal bonds don't make sense for me.

Everyone interested in building wealth needs to review the basics from time to time to ensure they stay focused. As every football coach knows -- when you forget the basics you lose. This book provides the guidance and reinforcement necessary to keep the reader focused and on the basics of financial investing. There are numerous ways to can win in the investment environment. This book lists these winning strategies. This is the type of book you will forever use as a reference.

Madeleine and J Lane Miller have written a valuable resource for the study of everyday life in Bible times. The blurb inside the dust jacket says that there are 74 subjects in 14 sections with 150 illustrations. There are sections on geography, homes, food, clothing, medicine, family events, the life of a nomad, the life of a professional, etc.

Let's say one is reading the story of David and Bathsheba. One might turn to the section on military life and read Soldering under David. There one might read that Saul was the first to establish a professional army in Israel rather than depend upon a militia. David added mercenaries to his army. In Israel mercenaries worked for wages but had no rights as a member of an Israelite tribe. A mercenary so totally belonged to the king that when a king died, like a concubine, a mercenary passed on to the king's heir. This raises the question to mind as to whether Uriah the Hittite was a mercenary along with other members of "the Thirty." One then might decide to read the section on Prostitutes. Prostitution did exist in Israel and there may have been temple prostitutes at Shiloh in the pre-monarchial period. Deuteronmic Law prohibited both male and female prostitution, but prostitution was a fact of life throughout the Ancient Near East.

Though the Millers have included a section on the Industrial Life, their book is lacking in discussing the economics of Bible life. There are no chapters on money or taxation. Even so I found this to be a valuable resource. When a favorite sister-in-law admired the book, I gave her my first copy. And then I missed the book so I went out and bought a second copy.

This book really has an excellent cover!

Hong Kong Action Theatre! 2nd Edition is a game based on Chinese action films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Killer. It attempts to accurately portray the style of these films and tries to cover all the genres: kung fu, wire fu, gunplay, and so on.

Players portray actors in Hong Kong cinema. Characters are created using Guardians of Order's simple Tri-Stat system, rounding out the character with skills like gun combat and kung fu and special attributes to set the actor apart like Director's Friend or Cantopop Star.

The actor is the character that players will be portraying every single game. Their abilities and attributes will remain stable. However, the character's Role changes from one session to the next.

Each session is a movie, and the Role is the actor's part in the movie. A Role can be anything from Triad Assassin to Hard-Boiled Cop to Drunken Fisherman. Each Role has unique abilities that stack on top of your actor's for that specific session.

Another interesting quirk of the game is Stunts. During combat, players are encouraged to have their characters do the wild and death-defying stunts of Hong Kong cinema. The wilder and more dangerous the stunt, the better the reward. Characters are rewarded by the gamemaster with Star Power points which represent the Actor's pull in the cinema world and his or her popularity with the audience. These can be cashed in for rerolls and other goodies such as script rewrites (e.g. the villain happens to be standing next to barrels of flammable liquid).

The game also contains a lot of "real-world" information on Hong Kong and the history of Hong Kong cinema that some might find interesting and others might find to be a waste of space in a roleplaying game book.

The game is great. With an energetic group with a feel for the Hong Kong action genre, you can make movies to rival Hong Kong blockbusters. In some respects, I feel that HKAT lumps too many of the genres together with no demarcation between gun fu, kung fu, and wire fu films, and so they all get smushed together. In general, it's fun, original, creative game and a worthy second edition to the original by Gareth Michael-Skarka.

Gameplay is episodic, with each game session being a "movie" independent of other game sessions. The movies can cover any of the traditional Hong Kong action film genres.

This is a solid system for a Kung Fu movie action game. This is made by Guardians of Order, so it uses the Tri-Stat System (if you've played BESM, this will be very familiar). The basic system is based on three stats: body, mind, and soul. You use these base stats to calculate your health, energy, starting star power, and attack and defense values. You then buy attributes and defects that customize your character. HKAT! 2 offers a wide variety of attributes and defects that allow you to build any kind of character. And if the attribute or defect you need doesn't exist, you can make a new one! (The GM, of course has say on what is allowed.) HKAT! 2 has the unique concept that the PCs (Player Characters) are actors playing roles in movies. When you make your character you make an actor, and can only buy an attributes and defects that are open or actor only. Then you use star power to bid on the role you want to play. Now you buy role attributes and defects to add to your character to simulate the special effects crews and such (the role attributes and defects go away at the end of a movie), and you can use leftover star power to improve the role too. What's cool about the role/actor concept is that your group can play a wide variety of games, say a horror action thriller one time, then a waxia (as in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) next. Also using star power, one person can have the lead role one movie, and some else can outbid him for the lead next time, so everyone gets a chance to be at the center of a game. At the end of a movie, the GM hands out star power rewards you use on the next movie. What you get is based on what you bid as well as how well everyone did and bonuses the GM may hand out. This encourages everyone to work as a group, as if the group "wins" the movie, everyone will get more star power. Another good point is that if you die, it's not necessarily bad, because it's only your role that dies, not your actor, and if you die heroically, this can be worth bonus star power!
Make no mistake, this is a Role-playing game, with emphasis on role-playing rather than dice roles and statistics and rules. While creation is a little involved, it's fairly straightforward one you get use to it. For resolving actions the Tri-Stat system offers one of the simplest systems I've seen.
Combat is also petty simple, I won't go into the details here, if you've played other tri-stat games, you'll be on familiar turf. HKAT! 2 does, however offer some optional combat rules that are worth mention. When you attack, you can choose whether to deliver a high, low, or medium kick or punch and you can target an opponent high, low or torso. The type of blow you deliver gives a bonus or penalty to your damage and initiative, for example, a light punch will let you attack sooner, but won't do as much damage as a hard kick. The attack location affects your opponent's defense, if you attack low, but you opponent defends high, your opponent will have a harder time defending.
The system, in summary is simple, yet flexible enough to handle any thing from swordplay and magic attacks in ancient China to a fierce shootout in modern Hong Kong.
And finally, I'll cover the quality of the book. As is typical of Guardians of Order, this is a well-done book. It's a good read with cool art and it is very clear. There is also a lot of extra martial here besides just the game. There is a section on Hong Kong, one on the history of Hong Kong film, one with summaries on a lot of Hong Kong films, and finally some sample adventures to get you started. The extra info is really great, especially for some like me who only has little knowledge on Hong Kong film; this book is a treasure trove of info for creating you own Hong Kong action film game. The only flaw I saw in this book is that the last line in some of the sidebars at the beginning of the book was truncated, and while this is annoying, no impotent information was lost (it was mostly flavor text) and this flaw doesn't greatly detract from enjoyment. Given how error riddled other role-playing games (just look at the errata on 3rd edition D&D) are, I couldn't justify taking off a point for this. I highly recommend this book if you want a simple and flexible system for an action Hong Kong style game.

This is a fun book to read. Though entertaining, it is also educational and will serve you well when you are ready to invest in stocks. In fact, it is packed with important information that is easily assimilated. This book is so interesting that my spouse read it and became interested in the investment process. This has saved me hours in trying to explain how the market works
Strongly recommed this book for family reading. Especially if you have children in high school,college or just entering the work force. A terrific book to take on vacation and read while in the air, at the beach or on ship board.

"How Stocks Work," a singularly efficient reference into the world of stocks, was written by celebrated financial author, Dr. David L. Scott. The book is systematically arranged from the concise preview-summaries at the beginning of each chapter, to the discussion of the topics in bold-faced question and answer style, to the indexed listing of subjects. Stock values, stock investments, special tax implications, among other stockholding matters, are treated completely and judiciously. The section examining mutual funds significantly heightend my awaresness of certain investments. The book concludes with specific guidance pertaining to Internet, radio-TV, library, and brokerage firm services available to investment families. "How Stocks Work" should be a desktop manual for both the experienced and the inexperienced stockholder. Unquestionably, Dr. Scott has again succeeded in conveying sense and sensibility toward our investments...lock, STOCK, and barrel.

A great book for those who want to spend a few months covering the entire region. Though a few geographical and historical errors are there, the good tips and listings give a great start for the intrepid traveler.

I am stationed in Germany and therefore have the opportunity to travel frequently throughout E. Europe. For several years now I have been looking for a travel guide that offers detailed travel info as well as historical and regional information. I finally found it all in Lonely Planet's E. Europe. Although it was an older version (1995) with often outdated prices, it provided an excellent source of maps, key sights, as well as a good, country-by-country historical brief. This book was so good, in fact, that someone in Ljubljana, Slovenia, decided they needed it more than I did, forcing me to buy the latest edition. I'm looking forward to seeing this updated edition.

I have never been shooshed so much while reading a book - I was chuckling at Handler's wit every other page! Hoagy is a great character and the plot is a pretty twisty one as well. A great read! I've said it many a time to emphasize how good a book was, but this is the first time I actually FINISHED A BOOK IN ONE SITTING! I couldn't read it fast enough. GOOD STUFF!

Handler is a scream. His stories are orginal and his characters are very lively. No trends are spared from Handler's savage pen. I hope Handler enjoys writing the Hoagy series as much as I enjoy reading it

This is a splendid book detailing life in Mexico before the conquest by the Spaniards. Beginning with the inside covers the book is rich in pictoral description. The endpapers are beautiful color reproductions of Diego Rivera's "The Great City of Tenochtitlan", a lavish tribute mural of Aztec life that adorns the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City. The color is magnificent throughout the book and includes many artifacts left from the ancient Aztecs. The book also includes a great little glossary that includes a pronunciation guide to Nahuatl terms. The glossary serves as a fine introduction to the Nahuatl Language and it's phonetics. Although the authors and contributors are scholars, the book is easy to read for the average person interested in archaeology and Pre-Columbian life in Mexico. The color plates are some of the finest and include rare glimpses into Codex's that are housed in museums. A magnificent book to use as reference. The book is also a great source of information for further research as it includes a selected bibliography. An excellent view of Aztec life, it compliments any personal library. If you love the Art of Pre-Columbian Mexico this book is also a source of inspiration.

Developed by four distinguished Mesoamerican scholars for an exhibit at the Denver Museum of Natural History (1992 - 1993). Great photographs of artifacts (jade masks, human skulls, sculptures), buildings and manuscripts. Well-written (not dry or too scholarly). It's been on my coffee table for years but I never tire of looking at it.

What a great book for beginning or struggling readers. Children have been very successful with this book. I love the length of the story and the characters are delightful. My favorite features are the Introduction for each book, a strategy used in Reading Recovery, and a part called, Helping Your Brand-New Reader . I've bought the whole collection for my first grade readers. Great series!

What a wonderful idea for beginning readers! Children need books like these in order to feel successful. The size of the book is perfect for small hands to hold. The repetitive story line allows children to be successful while reading the book and the book uses familiar sight words. The surprise ending makes the book fun for children, so they will want to pick it back up over and over again.

The illustrations are adorable! Children will enjoy each and every one of them beacause they show the actions on each page so clearly.

The front and back covers offer many good ideas to help children benefit from their reading experiences.

First of all, the illustrations in this book are priceless! When I first read it to my children, I could barely turn a page without their comments and chuckles about an expression on a character or some other subtle detail they noticed. Secondly, as a home-educating mother, this book is a gold mine of themes: honesty, resourcefulness, spirituality, social skills, death, generosity, and most of all, positive attitude. My children, ages 3 and 5 are a bit young for all it has to offer but they still enjoy it immensely and request it frequently. I would recommend this to any child ages 7 and up. It is a beautiful volume that really makes your children think...and ask questions!

This is a wonderful book about how a life can be changed by an unexpected gift, and how the love of someone can spread to others who are unknown to them. I read this to my little girl, and almost couldn't finish it--I was crying so. It is a very meaningful book, and shows how God's providence can change our lives and the lives of those around us.

I almost forgot about the illustrations! They are vivid, and express the joy of a life that has been changed by love.

I'm sorry, this review is really sappy, but I loved this book!

In our program of working with kids it has been hit or miss. Quick Connect helped us see exactly where kids were so we could appropriately respond to them. It's a one of a kind CD Rom tool, and kids love it too!

We began using this to track kids in our youth programs, and have it invaluable. We're able to get a much better handle on where kids are developmentally and spiritually - according to them - and then link our mentors with them so that real change can begin to happen. Haven't seen anything like this before. I highly recommend it!