On the advice of a friend, I purchased this book prior to last year's draft. While the information regarding every day players can be found elsewhere, the book's strength is its profiles of more obscure players. The book was particularly helpful during spring training, when the box scores are full of no name players, and during the September call up. During the course of summer, I found a profile regarding every player I looked up - I doubt that can be said of many publications.

Valuable Resource for all novice and intermediate Brake Operators.

Explains the theory and math needed to accomplish what the engineer couldn't!

With not very many books on this subject, this one is good for the novice as well as the journeyman. Well written and easy to follow, could use more bending instructions and examples. All-in-all, a good starting point!

As a journeyman sheetmetal worker this is an excellant textbook cover ing brake press technology. A must have reference

Great resouce. Well presented and easy to understand. A must for any operator who has to fix the problems the engineer couldn't!

While this books is easily worth the cover price to any Madonna fan or pop culture theorist, as it contains dozens of articles and texts that would be otherwise largely inaccessable, the editorial work is horrible. There are several transcription mistakes, which are painfully obvious even on a cursory reading. There are also many mislabled items, most notably pictures. The worst is a series of articles that are from USA Today dated 1996 - that discuss Madonna's "new" video, "Like A Prayer",which premiered seven years earlier. The articles are obviously mislabled, and no one caught on.

A recomened book for the content, but not for it's shoddy editorial job.

Being an extrememly dedicated Madonna fan, I am inclined to like almost any book about her. This was no exception. My favorite parts were towards the beginning because there were a lot of interviews, which I love. There were a lot of articles on other people's opinions of her work and although they were enjoyable to read for the most part; some times it would get a little monotonous. There were also some parts where it seemed many articles in a row would be negative, and that was a little annoying to read over and over. But that's what opinions and commentaries are for, right? That's definitely what this book is!

Academic scholars and fans will eat up this book of popular articles and critical essays on the queen of pop music. Anyone interested on the phenomenon of "Madonna" should definitely read this. This book provides valuable insight on her career, artistry and impact on on society, (whether you care to admit it or not.) Feminists, gays and lesbians should take note, there is plenty of material here to generate tons of debate on Madonnna's impact for years to come. A VERY VALUABLE AND FAIRLY RECENT RESOURCE!!!!!!!!!!

A to Z Thumbnail Sketches of all MLB players is a more appropriate title. This book falls well short of the other John Benson books and frankly I'm surprised he has his name on it. The comments written regarding each player could have easily come from a casual observer and surely there were no scouts involved in the making of this book. Its great for the beginner fan just getting involved but most of the bios and forecast seem like something right out of the team's annual player guide. A far better guide of all players is Sheehan's annual Baseball Prospectus and sells for less. It's published about a month later than Benson's book and includes comments regarding most of the off season trades and free agent signings. For the advanced fan my advice is wait for Sheehan's book.

This book has promise: bios on a wide variety of players, from the Majors to even a few guys in college or indy ball. But, the assessments occasionally contain inaccuracies or outdated information that makes this book a secondary source, at best. The Baseball Prospectus offers a better (albeit more sabremetrically oriented - which isn't everyone's cup of tea) look at a player's talent level - the STATS books are better at describing their tools. Still, worthwhile if you buy multiple books of this nature per year (as I do).

I buy this book every year, not because I play rotisserie baseball but as a baseball fan. This book lists thousands of players, every player that has a chance of playing in the major leagues at some point during the season. It is a good way to evaluate trades, keep track of your favorite teams, or even look up older players who are still hanging around the minors. This book always come out in a timely manner, and provides good thumbnail sketches of almost any player you can think of. As far as forecast accuracy, they are correct more often than not and given the volatility of these predictions, as much as you can ask for in a book published just a month after the season ended.