I'm not familiar with the other Rabbi Small books, which are apparently mysteries. Conversations With Rabbi Small provides a thorough examination of the Jewish religion. As the title suggests, most of the novel covers a series of conversations between Rabbi Small and a couple, Aaron and Joan. Aaron is Jewish; Joan is Christian, but is considering converting for the sake of her impending marriage. Aaron is not a religious Jew, but a scientist with an atheistic bent. Rabbi Small takes it upon himself to "convert" Aaron by explaining how Judaism is actually perfectly compatible with science and reason. As a non-Jew (and nonChristian actually) with an avid interest in history, philosophy and religion, I found Conversations to be a good source of information. One caveat --some non-Jews, especially religious Christians, may find some of the Rabbi's views objectionable. To paraphrase one passage, for example: "Christianity is a religion for dying, Judaism for living." He is similarly (and predictably) biased concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. And if he is less than charitable towards Christianity, he (the author, that is, speaking as Rabbi Small) shows very little understanding of either Eastern religions or mysticism, both of which are simplistically equated with mere escapism. Rabbi Small represents a particular sect of Judaism, the conservative branch. He is critical of Jews who believe in life after death and any form of mysticism (thus dismissing virtually the entire Kabbalistic tradition). Yet, while all these points may be debated, they don't really detract from the book. Indeed, it wouldn't be realistic to have a devout conservative Rabbi give equal treatment to other traditions. History does, after all, give Jews good reason to be suspicious of Christians. And the biases that are present are openly admitted (e.g. Rabbi Small doesn't claim to speak for all Jews). Conversations is in the tradition of the Platonic dialogues, with Aaron and Joan playing, to some extent, shills for the wise Socratic Rabbi. The book is well written, with enough external distractions from the dialogue to remind the reader that these are real people, not merely disembodied intellects.

very educational and enlightening. Conversations wtih Rabbi Small opened my eyes about the jewish culture and religion.

enjoyed every little phrase. aheavy subject made very interestingfound lot of similarities to hinduism though no mention was ever madeaboutitanywhere in the whole book authorhas kept the interest and the line of thought of the reader tied tothe book throughout

As an introductory economics text, this one is absolutely terrible. The much touted "conversational" writing style is actually a poor imitation of teenage slang and substantially devalues the subject matter. Somewhat paradoxically, the depth and breadth of subject matter is most appropriate for very advanced students -- the students most likely find the writing style ridiculous. The author attempts to augment the usual AD-AS analysis to account for some endogeniety, but economists tell so many lies with AD-AS analysis that it is absurd to introduce additional confusing notation to address an issue that doesn't materially affect issues such as the efficacy of monetary and fiscal policy. Finally, readers should be appalled that publishers/authors submit thinly veiled sales pitches as reviews (see, for example, the first review for this text). Get your students something useful, written and reviewed by distinguised economists, such as Baumol and Blinder.

This book was great for my introductory economics course. It would be helpful for anyone interesting in learning more about this important topic.

By far one of the best textbooks I've ever used, and certainly one of the best economics books on the market. Colander's down to earth, sometimes conversational writing style presents many involved and sometimes complicated topics in a manner that makes them easy to grasp. This text is a must for any economics student. Teachers and professors should also seriously consider using this text in their classrooms.

I don't think I ever came across a more useless book in my entire life. Not only the author bases himself on cliches which are completely out of date, he fails to introduce any new concepts or ideas. The whole content of this book can be summarized in about one sentence: "Gathering Information for your business is important" - great ! I really did not know this - "and the internet is a great source for that information - no ! Really ! I am amazed he found a way to spend 405 pages to tell us that. There are some useful URLs in there, but a bit of research on Yahoo or any other search engine would have given the same results. Basically if you are about to embark in a new business and you feel the need to read this, I would suggest you rethink. If you don't already know what's in this book before you start, then look into a career in the arts or something. This is a great book if you are 18, don't know anything about the world. Don't bother.

The anonymous "reader from the UK" is very misinformed at best and, at worst, is a plant. The book is a very comprehensive treatment of the subject. Please judge for yourself by looking at the table of contents.

Thank you,
David Vine
Author

Build a big company system on a small budget with the help of a guide which discusses strategies for maintaining an information edge on the net. Chapters will especially appeal to medium-sized business managers as they survey different systems options and set-ups.

This book is absolutely useless other than for academic interest. If you read the bios of the authors carefully they have never started or run a restaurant and that reflects the writing. The whole book is about marketing, planning, spreadsheets; something that would be taught in a college classroom. I really wasted my money on this book.

I'm now reading this book for the second time. The step by step guide is in a prudent timeline and very comprehensive. The authors add in enough anecdotes and survey results from succesful restauranteurs to keep the text interesting. The authors pay alot of attention to making sure readers really want to get into this business.

This new edition of Restaurant Start-Up Guide provides a 12-month plan for starting a restaurant, and is packed with financial and start-up information which will prove essential to any who plan on such a venture. Tips and techniques from two restaurant and business start-up pros provide all the information necessary to plan the venture, from creating revenue to determining the restaurant's focus and clientele.

This is a great book if you want ot brush up on your knowledge of the old Pagan Gods. It is also interesting to just skim through. Though the descriptions are not very detailed they are definitely sufficient for most. Not good for report refrences but surely delightful to have around.

Handy to have around if you have a casual interest in the old pagan gods. Makes nice browsing. Not for those who need to do in-depth research, but it gives a nice quick overview of a number of different pantheons.

Such negative reviews! Well, I loved this book, although it is not comprehesive, it serves as a good primer and offers brief information for many less commonly known deities. The author himself makes note that it was just casual note-taking that led to this booklet, not a major scholarly work he labored on. _The Gods of Man_ covers deities from the following cultures: African, Aztec, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Japanese, Mesopotamian, Norse, North American Indian, Oceanic, Roman, Santerian, Slavic, South and Central Native American Indian. Each culture has a small sampling of deities, with a brief definition of each. This book is meant more as a dictionary, NOT as large biographies of each deity. I have found info on many lesser-known deities, enough to give me an understanding of who he/she was and what he/she did. A nice work, if you can find it; apparently, it's been expanded and a new edition will be released shortly, so this delightful work can still be found.

I used this as one of my textbooks in my Police Administration class at the U of M. We found it had some obvious errors however overall it was a good text for rural community policing policies and I would recommend to anyone working in a rural or small town environment.

This book starts well, and it's obvious that the authors had the initial intention of making this material accessible to the average student. Of the book's 11 chapters, the first several are easy to read; there are "case studies" following the first 10 chapters which illustrate ideas, generate questions, and give students some material to evaluate. Unfortunately, things take a downward turn toward the middle of the book, plummeting into a death spiral in the last few chapters. It felt as if the authors either got tired of translating complex ideas into easy-to-read language or simply ran out of time. The last few chapters are an uphill slog through heavy jargon - just when you're trying to gear up for the final exam.

From the beginning, they relied too heavily on lists, lists and more lists. There were over 100 "core communication skills" of various types strewn about in parcels of up to 20 at a time, and there was no master list to refer to. There are numerous additional lists (the 4 signs of this, the 8 kinds of that, etc.) which a teacher can plunder for exam material - much to the student's grief. Nowhere is there a list of the 14 ways to mutilate a textbook - I'll just have to experiment.

As for the writing style, it varies from friendly and chock full of real-life analogies to passages like this example from Chapter 11: "Differences in the characteristics of individuals are also a class of variables that complicate a unified communication-based theoretical explanation of group output (Gouran and Fisher 1984). Here, we again define the term individual rather expansively to include any demographic (e.g., gender, age, race), psychographic (e.g., belief, attitude, ego involvement), or sociographic (e.g., student, Mason, argumentative) factor that may impact group outcome." Yes, it's readable on the second or third try, but the chapter goes on and on.

If this is the required text for a Small Group Communication course you're planning to attend, you might want to take another look at your schedule.

I have used this textbook to teach Introduction to Small Group Communication for 10 years. It is a solid overview of key communication concepts, processes and skills in small group communication. I would disagree with the review written by dharting. The average undergraduate has no difficulty reading this book. It may not be in dharting's Top 10,000, but I suspect the bulk of this list is comic books.

There is some really good information in this 500-plus page volume. However, the information is wrought in cold and technical scientific jargon with a predominant orientation to serve corporate agribusiness and global trade. The text is accompanied by several simple illustrations useful for identicication of plant parts and biological processes. There are also several small, grainy, black and white photos many of which feature monstrous machines such as harvesters, electric-powered transporters, oil burners, and herbicide sprayers. In words straight from the book, "Farming must be viewed as a business with sound financial management practiced in all aspects of the operation." To this end I give the editors five stars. However, the text clearly neglects any mention of issues surrounding environmental stewardship, sustainability, bio-regional self-sufficiency, cultural and biological diversity, or economic democracy. Most of all, the joy surrounding fruit production and gardening is almost completely forgotten in this text.

This is the best reference I've found on small fruit crop production. The authors are both scientists, so it's not very entertaining, but it is very informative. You can, with some effort, find about everything you need to know to grow common small fruit crops. However, the index is no help at all. It's more of a reference book for farmers than for gardeners.

The book provided in-depth information about the program. It included all of the various aspects of running a real business, which gives some valuable experience for the real world. The program needed to be more user-friendly and provide more detail about the products being manufactured. Overall, it was a valuable lesson in working in a business environment.

Are you looking for a simulation? This book is nothing like I have encountered before. I would suggest this book as a learning tool for people interested in opening their own small business. It will give you insight to yourself and the way you manage a company depending on outside influences and internal problems. The book was really easy to follow and gave you a clear idea of what was to be expected. The book is merely a guide to a mock simulation of a small company challenged by similiar companies in the same industry. The program was not as user friendly as it could be and made it burdensome to look at necessary reports at one time. Several run time errors were encountered along the way. Overall the book opened my eyes to the experience of competition in a dog eat dog world of survival.

The textbook that was used to teach threshold was a true learning experience. I believe that the program allowed students to learn how the world of business operates in the eyes of a small business operation. I learned the different approaches you have to look while trying to make your business the most profitable. I do think that the program should have contained an 800 number to allow students to speak to a representative that would help with any questions the student would have. Overall, the book was a true learning experience.

This is possibly the most horrible book I have ever read. I finished it, just because I kept thinking that it might get better. This is the first book I read by this author, and I have to say that I will never read another one. Books that I think are really terrible are few and far between, but this one may be the absolute best of the worst.

I realize that this is not the first book in this series, but it is his first that I have read. Although it wasn't great, I'm not quite yet ready to write off the author completely. This particular book seems to be really low-key as far as creating a motive and building storylines. However, I thought it was an okay book if you want an easy, non-suspenseful read. I'll probably try and find the first in this series and start there and see how it goes.

Harry Kemelman's Rabbi David Small is once again gainfully employed! Following his earlier resignation in "The Day the Rabbi Resigned," Small is now teaching at Windermere College--a good, if not proper for him, academic setting. In "That Day the Rabbi Left Town," it seems, having run out of days of the week (remember, this series started with "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late," Kemelman has been creative with working in other diurnal references in his title. That aside, of course, the series has been a fun read. In this one, the death of an elderly colleague gets Rabbi Small into the heart of the action, as it were. Of course, in his new setting he quickly stumbles into all kinds of academic and campus politics, grudges, and jealousies, to say the least. This episode seems a bit different, however, as Kemelman goes didactic and spends a good third of the book giving us perhaps more background, history, and practices of his religion. Readers may find this a struggle, particularly if they are in a hurry to get into the real case! Once that occurs, however, Kemelman cruises.(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)