I returned this book because it has absolutely nothing to do with golf--sand castles in the bunker and kids rolling around on the green. I guess adding lightning to the rainstorm might have taught one lesson in the book. It certainly doesn't portray the behavior I want from my children on or near a course.

What a charming book...and quite fun to read. It is a great book for the beginning reader. My first-grader loves that she can read it herself. The illustrations are so colorful and fun, even my 2 year old is captivated by the pictures. A great find!

I have purchased 5 Or 6 of these books for Christmas and Birthday presents.

It's fun, and well thought out with great illustrations. My daughter loves it.

I just loved the way each chapter started with a scenario from the history archives of actual firms that narrated a story which was directly linked to the contents of the chapter. Out of all the books that i read for my MBA, this book has been one of the better Management books, which i enjoyed reading. The ideas, theories and concepts in the book felt like eating a salad for lunch. It was light, easy to digest and healthy

Great overview of economics. Good for managers who want to know how to read economic forces, react to them, and how to use them.

Besides being a well organized and example-packed textbook, I found Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture to be a compact MBA refresher course -- and a useful reference for day-to-day problems. Thinking about business organizations as rational individuals responding to incentives and new information simply fits the facts. The three basic elements developed in this book allow managers to translate this logical thinking into operational decisions: allocating decision rights, measuring performance, and compensating individuals and groups. The power of this approach in analyzing common management problems equips the reader with a rich set of tools for identifying and solving them.

It should be called "Patriots and Portraits". I have the book and went to see the show, but the title is a misnomer. You will be very disappointed if you are looking for N. C. Wyeth's pirate paintings. The are no Pirate paintings. The N.C. Wyeth paintings are mainly war and patriotic painting. The Jamie Wyeth paintings are mainly portraits of patriots.

I have the book and went to see the show, but the title is a misnomer. It should be called "Patriots and Portraits". You will be very disappointed if you are looking for N. C. Wyeth's Pirate paintings. The are no Pirate paintings. The N.C. Wyeth paintings are mainly war and patriotic paintings. The Jamie Wyeth paintings are mainly portraits of patriots.

This book shows the comparison of grandfather (N.C) and grandson's (Jamie) work. An excellent study. I have always considerend N.C.'s work superior to any of the other Wyeths, Andrew specifically and in particular. This book pretty much affirms it. Check it out.

This low quality spiral bound notepad of cheap drawings contains some of the most ridiculous and non-intuitive signs I've ever seen. Some of them are just plain wrong, in my opinion. The 5% of the book that is of any value is, in my experience, common knowledge from basic open water training. I expected a book of signs that makes use of common expressions that transcend spoken language, at least in the western hemisphere, and can be easily understood by a buddy team that does not have much experience diving together. The book should be called The Smiths Sign Language Manual and not Scuba Divers Sign Language Manual because I think the authors are the only ones who understand it. In summary, I feel it's a poor attempt to facilitate communication underwater and is not worth the price!

I highly recommend this little handbook, I am a diving instructor and use it in all of my classes. The emergency signs are exceptional and it is very handy to have all of us using the same signs. One of my students was fluent in American Sign Language and she was very happy to learn that the signs worked for scuba divers too! Plus it is easy to carry in your dive bag. It really is a universal reference book for all divers to learn and use for safety and for fun.

This handbook has been well adapted from American Sign Language (ASL) with translations to improve underwater safety and emergency issues. I use this reference in teaching my scuba diving classes and find it very valuable. These are important signs that may be used in any type of emergency situation or just for explaining the fascinating sights to your buddy or other divers. I highly recommend this great little reference book. It is another tool to keep you safe while scuba diving.

I came by this book by accident, and enjoyed it immensely. I have not even known before that my favorite movies had Burton in common.

It covers everything you could possibly wish to know about the films, and even provides a summary of one I'd never even heard of - Luau. This isn't even listed on the IMDB, and no other books on Burton mention it, but they've got an interview with Rick Heinrichs (the guy who designed Sleepy Hollow and worked on Luau) about it, so it must be for real!

It's really well written too, and pretty amusing in places - the level of research is amazing - they even give notes showing where they got all their info from, so you can check it out for yourself. The stuff they got from Martin Landau and the two guys who wrote Ed Wood is incredibly interesting - a load of stuff I'd never heard about that film - some that isn't even included on the DVD's commentary.

Basically, this book's great. I'd read Burton on Burton (which is very good), that Pocket Essentials one (which is pretty good), that biography (which is really poor), and the "CHild's Garden of Nightmares" one (which is interesting, but doesn't cover nearly as much detail as this). NOne of these other books on Burton come close to this one.

I'd recommend this book to anyone.
It is a great analysis of each of Tim Burton's movies. It is written clearly and has information which I haven't read in any other Burton book.
I'm not just becoming a Burton fan, I have every other book on Tim Burton and I believe this one to be the best and most informative.

The book may not have the authors comments, but it is written in so much detail about each Burton movie that it doesn't matter.
If you want to find out more about Burton then this is the book you should get.
The book also includes quotes from people who have worked with Burton and from the man himself.
The length of this book proves that much time and effort went in to write this, and I think it was worth it.
I have found out some new things about some of his movies from reading this book.

So in my opinion I think this book is really worth buying!

This book was difficult to read, often wandering off on a tangent. I know the subject of taxes can be difficult but this text made topics that I was already familiar with seem confusing again. Each chapter has several examples, many of which were helpful. But many were also not clearly explained and a few made me wonder if the paragraph was truely finished. If you have a choice, pick up some tax software and a quickfinder guide to go with this class.

One of the better written tax textbooks. Will actually NOT put you to sleep when you read it. Easy to understand examples.

I am using this book in my Federal tax accounting class. I have more about taxes from this book than I have ever in my whole life. Great tax examples and many resources to solve each problem.

This series is by far the best action/adventure of it's type out there today.
If you like SEAL TEAM 7 then you will LOVE this series even better. The rawness and savagery are written extremely well with characters that are not perfect - but extremely interesting to delve into time and again.
Sgt. Night Runner is by far the most interesting of the team with his American Indian background coming more and more to the fore with each novel, turning him into a warrior of old with new technology helping.
What I like about this series is Mr. Smith always starts right off in the thick of things without bogging you down with boring political jargon. His action scenes are very colorful and well thought out. You can tell that he is a writer with firsthand experience with this.
I normally don't read this type of genre, but thank god for Amazon.com for getting me interested. I have purchased all of the novels and will be a James R. Smith fan for as long as he writes this top-notch adventure.
Thanks Mr. Smith!

This 3rd in the FORCE RECON adventure series is an all-out assault on the combat senses, giving the reader a front row seat for high octane action/adventure.
The only complaint I have is that they are too short. The Team Midnight are at it again in Kosovo, fighting Serbs as well as their own bombing raids.
The new character called Perfect was delicately written and was a plus for this growing action series.
You can tell that the author loves to write about his favorite character - Night Runner - because even though he is not the main character - he is by far the most interesting.
Jack Swayne, the leader of team midnight, is a great character whom is both smart and deadly when the time is ripe.
Being stuck behind enemy lines and surrounded by armed Serbs isn't enough, throw in a crazy dictator and Swayne's love interest as his captor, and you have a great action read.
This is a must for action fans of all genres. Man, this author was a great find. If you haven't tried this guy out - then hurry and order your books now, or look in your used book stores for past novels by this author. He doesn't disappoint!

There was a little misstreated boy named james, who dosen't get fed for stupid reasons. One day when he's out in the garden when a old man walks up to him and gives him some seeds. He drops them and a huge peach grows and he climbs into the peach and the peach rools away and goes over the atlantic ocean. Sounds fantastic dosen't it.

A crude adaptation of the Disney film version of "James and the Giant Peach". I bought this book solely for the Lane Smith illustrations. Other Smith fans might take a look at the work of Sergei Goloshapov, another great illustrator with a similar, unusual style.

This book is about a boy who lived with her mean aunts and then they grew this peach and his aunts wants to sell it. This book is funny because bugs are talking to James and they traveled.

I am a published novelist and writing teacher. Thus, I read all the writing books I can lay my mitts on. Smith's book is easily the most fun and full of great ideas. Some, like the 1100 title exercise, may seem a little excessive, but that's part of the fun. You can use the ideas and forms here and give them a little tweak. The book stimulated me to ratchet up my own creativity, and has energized me. Terrific job!

I've read more writing books than I can count, and usually find a few things in each one to inspire and guide me. I read both books by this author, (You Can Write A Novel) and gave my manuscript a complete rewrite. I used the techniques, followed some of his ideas, (not all of them) and paid attention to his suggestions. Result: the next editor who looked at my query asked for a full. Then I became a finalist in the Dorchester "New Historical Voice" contest. I didn't win, but who cares, because MY book is a September 2002 release. I took the advice in these books, applied it, and made the changes. It might just be a coincidence that I got published, but I don't think so. Make a good investment, buy these books, and pay attention. It could happen to you!

Different, yes, Down-to-earth, definitely.

After the disparity in reviews covering this book at both extremes of the spectrum, I had to see it for myself. Here's what I found.

Definitely go with the readers who liked the book. The author debunks the notion of writing as heaven-sent art. He gets down to the nitty gritty. He doesn't take himself too seriously but does take writing seriously. This comes through in the way he puts himself down while approaching the nuts and bolts of writing from a practical point of view.

I didn't just read the book. I actually tried Smith's creativity tips and found myself wanting to get back to a manuscript that's been buried in the back of my closet for years. I'm back in the writing game because of the Brainstormer.

I can see how somebody could take umbrage at the book. If you think of writing as sitting back with a smoking jacket and pipe and dreaming philosophically about literature while waiting for the muse to tap you

on the shoulder, don't buy the Brainstormer. If you want an author to set up, tap you on the brain and tell you to get to work, this is the reference for you. Thanks, Mr Smith, for putting me back to work on my Great American Novel.

Somewhat interesting but I ran into a similar problem with another book about Ireland I read recently - it is written as if you have great familiarity with Irish history (which I don't). Very little is explored in-depth, some areas of Irish history seemed skimmed over or omitted entirely. Like the last book I read, it's okay for a review but not for the beginning "student". I'll try again somewhere else.

As a student of Dr. Duffy's I have seen the actual man in action and I do not belive this book represents in whole the genius of the man. This book in its simplicity, limits the intelligence of its reader to but a few pages in which, though well presented, are not close to touching the genius of the editor. I believe that this work, though informational and well made does not show the skill of the editor as an historian. To truly appreciate Dr. Duffy one has to read a work entirely of his own rather than this piece.

Editor Sean Duffy's Atlas of Irish history is a fine, worthy addition to your Irish-related library. Whether you're a newcomer to Irish history or a card-carrying gaelophile, this atlas has much to offer, covering several thousand years of Irish history in a concise, highly readable, and strikingly visual manner.

The concept of the Irish Atlas is simple yet highly effective. Generally one page of text is followed by a thematic map. For example, a chapter on the Viking wars of the 8th century is accompanied by a helpful map that reveals the exact location in Ireland of Viking raids, settlements, and more. In another later chapter, The Ulster Question, a fine overview of this critical and longstanding issue is followed by a map that reveals the distribution of Protestants and Catholics in Ulster, 1911. Other chapters include, but are by no means limited to, the 1798 Rebellion, the pre-famine economy, World War 1 & the Easter Rising, and 1990s Ireland.

While some readers might quibble with the rather limited text, it's important to remember this is an atlas. The text (solidly written, by the way) is meant as an overview to these pivotal events in Irish history. It should be used as a gateway to more detailed writings. (The atlas concludes with a two-page "further reading" section.) As for the maps, editor Duffy concedes they "show facts rather than influences or ideas..." But this reader found the maps instructive and creative, a fine complement to the text.

Kudos to Mr. Duffy and his collaborators on the Irish Atlas. It does indeed go "some way to explain the story of this unique and fascinating place."