This book explains how "time" plays such a key role in economic reasoning and public policymaking. By reading this book you'll learn why time is so important, and you'll also learn why time is so frequently ignored in discussions of political action and popular economic debates.

Page 99 has a statement that captures and summarizes the thesis: "[P]olicies whose benefits can only be imagined creatively, whose expected impacts are indirect, and which occur in the long run will receive far less support than those policies which are experienced in the present, whose expected impacts are direct, and which take place in the present."

(Please don't let this rather long sentence suggest that the whole book is written that way, because it is not. It is a collective summary that even Prof. Smith puts in italics.)

If you are interested in market economics, public policy, the rule of law, dynamics of political parties, or if you are interested in the "culture war" in America, then you will find many ideas and insights in this book that you won't find anywhere else. For those who have read "Human Action" by Ludwig von Mises, or "The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich Hayek, this is a superb next book.

I happen to like sweet and funny romances including animals as pets, but this book was a huge disappointment. For instance, the stories included one about a cat who was a person/witch in cat form, caused by a spell from an evil woman. It was ridiculous to me. This book was more about fantasy/witchcraft than about cats. I found it to be disturbing overall, as it was more scary/unpleasant than it was romantic. In other ways it just seemed silly. I am not opposed to stories about witchcraft,in general, but these stories seemed to be more about spells and evil-doers than about romance and kitties. Not my "cup of tea." I discarded this one.

I was really let down by this book. The hint of supernatural sensuality was a total blow out. There's almost no magic except in the last story. There's no sexual encounters anywhere either, except in said last story a reference to the two main characters running off as cats. Um, anyone realize that feline coitus is unbelievable painful for a female?
Also the writers deal with the same areas, house, and some same characters, and they can't agree. Much to my horror, one of them killed off the benevolent elderly lady who bequeath's the cats in the four stories.
Like I say, it's a great idea but a really weak execution. Want something with cats but written by MUCH better writers?
Try "Fantasy" by Christine freehan et al.

It is a pleasant and sweet book. I really like the character Gisella Lowell and most of the others. I have a love for cats and romances so this was the book for me. I suggest any cat and romance lovers out there to read this sweet and enchanting book!

This book is not a good read but full of interesting bits of information. It is drastically in need of editing. Published posthumously, the format gives the sense that the author's notes were simply printed as they were found with information oddly organized or repeated.

I was dreadfully sad to read a review of this book which thought that it was too difficult and not well edited. I'm only 21 and found this book to be fascinating, with much knowledge and information that captivated my interest. It is a text that has to be thought over and studied, making it much more valuable than simply a child-view of such a distinct history of the Thoroughbred horse. It was well written and planned out. I found this to be a brilliant construct of the details of such a beloved tradition as these creatures.

You shouldn't waste your money and time reading this series.
I read the books in Japanese for years.
The first few volumes are okay, but the story and the characters will get messed up later on.
Better not expect a lot from this series and the author.

This is the first part of the long story:

if you read this book, and had a good impression, you had better stop reading.

The story was a heroic fantasy at the first, and is a slash gay novel now. Book1-10 would not be so bad, so maybe you like them, though reading the succeeded part of the Guin Saga is nothing but wasting your time and money.

I have read the story from book 1 to book 88 in Japanese, and I decided to stop reading at last, when i found myself totally disappointed and exhausted, and found the fact that the heroic fantasy GUIN SAGA would never come back.

What I have read through 20 years was an amateur's slash gay novel in fact.

This is surely the greatest SF fantasy novel that I came across in my life.
Called the eheroic fantasyfcategory in Japan, this novel is about one's
destiny and how the heroes in the story fight for their own lives and love
one another.@There are 90 novel series/sequels currently published with an
unprecedented plan of publishing 100 within a few years. When the new series
come up, this novel immediately becomes the number one seller for months in
Japan.
I guarantee that you will not be able to put it down once you start reading
one.@You are sure to find more than one character thatfs your favorite
within the story. You will feel the happiness of experiencing the time
transition through this unique world the exact same way many of the Japanese
are already experiencing.
Definitely a must! Pick up the first volume and see what you think.

Reference books on doll collecting are a must for the serious collector! However, most of us collect on a budget and want to spend our dollars wisely on dolls as well as on our reference books. I was not pleased with Patricia Smith's book on Alexander dolls. While her book includes a wide array of pictures, I found it not at all helpful in identifying my dolls. Ms. Smith gives brief, often incomplete descriptions of the dolls photographed. These are included under each picture. She fails to give detailed information on the dolls, and the photos are usually not close-ups. I, like most collectors, use these books to identify dolls, or untagged costumes, and this book is not much help in that area. It would be a nice addition to a collection, if you just like to look at pictures, or if you collect only Alexander dolls and are looking for that particular doll's photo in print. She may be in this book! However, this book is not a comprehensive book on Alexander dolls and leaves the collector on a quest for detailed information wanting to know more about the lovely dolls in the pictures.