Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2
Book reviews for "Stein,_Benjamin" sorted by average review score:

Little Prayers (Golden Naptime Tale)
Published in Hardcover by Golden Books Pub Co Inc (1997)
Authors: Alan Benjamin, Samuel J. Butcher, and Sara Bonnett Stein
Amazon base price: $4.99
Used price: $0.95
Collectible price: $32.60
Buy one from zShops for: $3.27
Average review score:

Her First Book Read to her
This book is great. It was the first book read to her when she was just born. She still loves at 18 months. We read it to her at night and she loves to look at all the neat pages.

ONE OF MY DAUGHTER'S FAVORITE BOOKS SINCE 2 MONTHS OLD!
PRECIOUS MOMENTS LITTLE PRAYERS' illustrations and storyline are both 5 stars each so this book deserves 10 STARS! It is truly rare to find a book with a great story and illustrations like this one! No words I can utter would do this book justice--I'll let the book speak for itself:

"I'M READY TO SLEEP, ALL SAFE AND SNUG. I'VE HEARD A STORY AND HAD A HUG.

THANK YOU GOD, FOR A HAPPY DAY. GIVE ME A HAPPY TOMORROW, I PRAY.

I WONDER WHAT I'LL DREAM TONIGHT, HERE IN MY COZY BED. PERHAPS I'LL DREAM OF KINGS AND QUEENS OR JUST OF MY OLD BEAR, TED.

MY GUARDIAN ANGEL SPENDS THE NIGHT, AND KEEPS ME SAFE TILL MORNING'S LIGHT.

THANKS FOR THE SUN...THANKS FOR THE MOON...THANKS FOR THE STARS SO BRIGHT. THANKS FOR WATCHING OVER ME--MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT.

THANK YOU, GOD, FOR BOOKS AND TOYS TO SHARE WITH OTHER GIRLS AND BOYS.

THANK YOU, GOD, FOR EARTH AND SKY, FOR OCEANS DEEP AND MOUNTAINS HIGH, FOR SUMMER, WINTER, FALL AND SPRING--THANK YOU, GOD, FOR EVERYTHING."

Night-night, sweet dreams and remember God loves you!

Good Bedtime routine
My two-year-old loves this book! We read it every night before going to bed. The rhyming prayer was easy for her to memorize, so she now "reads" the book to me. The poem reviews the bedtime routine and reminds kids to be thankful for their world.


Building Technology: Mechanical and Electrical Systems
Published in Hardcover by John Wiley & Sons (1977)
Authors: William J. McGuinness, William J. McGuiness, and Benjamin J. Stein
Amazon base price: $89.00
Used price: $3.25
Average review score:

My Grandpa's Grandest book!
A Great book on the fundamentals of engineering. It is used in many colleges. It helped me a lot for my most recent science fair project.


The Croesus Conspiracy
Published in Paperback by Ballantine Books (1979)
Authors: Ben Stein and Benjamin J. Stein
Amazon base price: $2.25
Used price: $1.32
Collectible price: $0.85
Average review score:

This book was written by a Literary genius, so chamelic.
This book is such a deeply written spy drama, so full of mystery that I literally couldn't put it down. Having been a fan of great novels dealing in the Jewish terror during Hitlers reign, such as The Diary of Anne Frank, The Upper Room, etc. It was interesting to find such a book so articulate in manner, that it held my attention so tight. The belief that our top US Gonernment officals could be duped so much, made it hard to remember that it IS fiction. With as many twists and turns, even today this book could become such a Blockbuster Motion Picture, that it could easily vie for an Oscar. Ben Stein has such a versatile imagination, that I will have no problem buying anymore of this authors books.


Her Only Sin
Published in Paperback by St Martins Mass Market Paper (1987)
Author: Benjamin Stein
Amazon base price: $4.50
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $2.38
Average review score:

Mind blowing drama that keeps me hoping that it must be true
Hollywood and the gritty going on behind the films has never been presented in such an interesting and arresting style.There is just enough factual information to bring the reader to an understanding of what is involved in the big film studios and the ingredients necessary to make a successful studio exec.

Stein's calamities are brilliantlly thrown at the reader and one needs to plow through a chapter or two to find out how this all began.

I kept coming back for more and fell in love with the author and developed a caring concern and admiration for his leading lady "Susan".

He tells it like I want it to be and keeps in step with a foundation of integrity by discovering and revealing the importance of expressing feelings, having dreams and the pursuit of them while valuing the truth.

His definition of love is too simple for me not to understand it. Too bad he hasn't published a sequel to this storyline "Her Only Sin".

This story left m! e searching the web for more. I know now what is meant by "weaving a story". Ben Stein is a first class story weaver.


Hollywood Days, Hollywood Nights: The Diary of a Mad Screenwriter
Published in Paperback by Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd Pap) (1988)
Authors: Benjamin Stein and Ben Stein
Amazon base price: $7.95
Used price: $1.99
Collectible price: $4.24
Buy one from zShops for: $7.44
Average review score:

I kid you not - the best book ever on Hollywood.
Before Ben Stein because the famous voice or commercial pitchman or game show host, he struggled around the fringes of the film business. Because, in addition to being lured out to Hollywood by Norman Lear (All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, for those of you too young to remember), he graduated at the top of his class at Yale Law School, was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon, worked as a lawyer for the FTC, and is the son of well-known economist Herbert Stein (also an excellent writer), Stein's diaries about life in Hollywood are not the usual fare. The book is hilarious, informative, and also tells - back when it really happened without the perspective of later history - the story about how Ben Stein was "discovered" by Hollywood. It was purely by accident that he got his break in Ferris Buehler's Day Off, but those accidents are part of the fabic of Hollywood. Stein does a wonderful job putting it all in perspective.


The View from Sunset Boulevard: America as Brought to You by the People Who Make Television
Published in Paperback by Basic Books (1979)
Author: Benjamin Stein
Amazon base price: $8.95
Used price: $4.99
Collectible price: $19.95
Average review score:

Taught me how to watch TV.
I read this book over 20 years ago. It taught me "how to watch TV." Critics have compared it to the film book classic, FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER (an analysis of how Weimer Germany films reflected German sociological undercurrents).

Ben Stein watched popular TV shows from the 1970s, both sitcoms and dramas, then analyed how various social groups are protrayed: businessmen (as criminals), the military (psychotic sadists), minorities (good-hearted), criminals (driven to do bad by racism and poverty) clergy (nice but ineffectual), govt social workers (noble, idealistic, hard-working).

Watch any episode of a 1970s show (Beretta, Kojak, Good Times, Rockford Files, The Jeffersons), and you'll be amazed at how consistent the formula is.

Ben Stein also interviewed many TV writers and producers, and demonstrated how their own backgrounds and lifestyles gave rise to the liberal biases reflected in their shows. (They really believed the world was as they portrayed it). Maybe half were Jews, the rest mainly Catholic, who were raised in working class environments and felt the sting of prejudice from "country club WASP Republicans."

Today, TV is not so liberal as in the 1970s. TV writer Rob Long wrote in National Review a few years back that 1990s sitcoms are apolitical, because a newer generation of TV writers has replaced the old. Most modern TV writers come from wealthy Hollywood families, or from the Ivy League (as was Long), so they no longer have the same liberal biases.

Even so, Ben Stein's book is STILL AS RELEVENT today as ever. Not because of what he discoverd about 1970s TV, but because of his method of analysis. Stein's book TAUGHT ME HOW TO WATCH TV. It's simply the best TV analysis book out there, great reading for anyone who wants to be a TV critic, or just to see TV more clearly.

Plenty of film theory books, but this is one of the few really great TV theory books. Also, it's a quick, easy read. Much intelligence, but in accessible language.

And YES, this is the SAME Ben Stein who hosts Comedy Central's WIN BEN STEIN'S MONEY.


Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings
Published in Hardcover by John Wiley & Sons (1991)
Authors: Benjamin Stein, John S. Reynolds, and William J. McGuinness
Amazon base price: $99.00
Used price: $23.35
Buy one from zShops for: $48.94
Average review score:

Top Notch Reference
This volume is one of the best reference materials available for the MEP or Architectural Engineer. I found the descriptive detail and illustration that aided me in the learning process. I reccomend it highly.

An author's view:
My part of this book (mechanical and plumbing) is designed to first show how to minimize the need for mechanical equipment by designing with the climate and site firmly in mind. First configure a building to optimize daylighting, solar heating, and various climate-appropriate passive cooling methods. Also, to store rainwater when appropriate. Then, proceed to choose and size the back-up equipment. In this way, designers conserve non-renewable energy, utilize natural (on-site) energy sources, and also help building occupants stay in touch with the outdoors. I believe that we'll tend to care more about a clean outdoor environment if we are kept aware of its condition.
For a summary of this approach, read Chapter One. I hope you enjoy this book, even when it is your textbook! That was my object. Suggestions? I'm at jreyn@darkwing.uoregon.edu


Tommy & Me: The Making of a Dad
Published in Hardcover by Simon & Schuster (1998)
Authors: Benjamin Stein and Ben Stein
Amazon base price: $23.00
Used price: $2.99
Collectible price: $6.99
Buy one from zShops for: $14.62
Average review score:

Mixed feelings
It really was a pleasure to read about the extravagant affection and regard that Ben Stein has for his son, and the anecdotes were enjoyable and heartwarming. I have never read a book that conveys such feelings so effectively, and for that I am very glad I took the time to read it.

I can't say I agree with some of Ben's parenting philosophy -- the unlimited indulgence of his son's desire to shop seems unwise. Ben defends this practice fairly eloquently, but I am still of the mind that _all_ vices are destructive in some way. Giving a vice free rein because it is not as dangerous as some others can still have undesirable consequences. But this is a minor issue, really, so I only subtract 1/4 star from five stars for that!

More importantly for me, I was left feeling confused about the relationship between Mr. Stein and his wife. He does make a point of saying that parenting is a job best done by a mother and a father, but the rest of the book is spent describing ! ! very long stretches of time that he spends alone with his son. His wife is simply not an active character in this book, which is otherwise populated with about twenty other characters who are actually given dialog, and action, and intent. There was a situation involving a woman and her son that seemed downright creepy to me (a situation from which I literally would have run away). Admittedly, I have never lived a life of fame in which characters like this appear in my life, but it seemed like an unstable situation that, for his son's benefit, would have been better avoided. Maybe something just got lost in the transliteration of this event, so I'll just leave my comments at that.

Despite the absence of his wife as a character in the book, it _is_ quite clearly described as a book about a father and a son, so I give the book four stars overall.

Bravo. This should be required reading for all parents.
Ben Stein's intelligence, charm, and wit have given him the opportunity to do many things in life -- serve in the Nixon White House, practice law, teach law, write speeches, write columns, and write books. But most of us know him through his unforgettable portrayal of a monotone high school teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Wonder Years" or his new Comedy Central game show "Win Ben Stein's Money," where he combines Jeopardy-like knowledge with none of the pretension.

Many people would use the blessings Mr. Stein has received for pure monetary gain. While he seems to have done some of that (this is, after all, America) he has focused the most important gifts he has -- his time and attention -- where they are needed most: on a child who might have otherwise gone unfathered. This book is squarely about how, when, and why Ben Stein and his wife adopted a young boy named Tommy -- and, more particularly, how Mr. Stein came to appreciate the joy and responsibility of fatherhood.

Mr. Stein readily admits his youthful mistake of revelling in self-absorption, but allows the reader to journey with him through as he comes to a realization that many parents miss. That is, "quality time" with children is too often a dodge for parents who put their own emotional needs ahead of the precious child they brought into this world. He advocates for "quantities" of time over the oft-cited "quality time."

Ben Stein makes the powerful case that should be (but is sadly not) self-evident -- young children need to be with their parents as much as possible. The foundation of parent-child bonding over thousands of hours of play, talk, and other interaction is the salve needed for some of our society's deepest wounds -- increased crime rates, more divorces, and weaker family bonds.

If you are a parent, want to be a parent, or love a parent, "Tommy and Me" is the perfect book. Mr. Stein's aggressive advocacy for the parent-child bond is tempered with humor, insight, and self-deprecation.

Bravo, Ben Stein.

A Touching Story About What Growing Up is Really About
As the book progressed, I realized I was clinging to practically every word. Ben Stein pours out his love for his son from page to page. He matures from a self-centered egoist to a caring father and discovers the most important things in life...and it isn't his possessions.


The Buzzword Bingo Book: The Complete, Definitive Guide to the Underground Workplace Game of Corporate Jargon and Doublespeak
Published in Paperback by Random House Trade Paperbacks (1999)
Authors: Lara Stein and Benjamin Yoskovitz
Amazon base price: $9.95
Used price: $2.87
Collectible price: $4.96
Buy one from zShops for: $4.75
Average review score:

Interesting book
Interesting book but don't let the upper management catch you with it.

Is a bit of a passing fad though.

Good Job!
Good Job

An eyeopening view to our daily buisness jargon.
Dry, never ending, buzzword-idiots usually turn the boardroom "Daily" into a yawn-athon. Tired of trying to decypher the latest "Achrobuzzum"? I was, so I looked for an answer. I found it in the form of "The Buzzword BINGO Book". This book not only answered aukward research "buzzword bombshells" but took the parody of boardroom venacular to new levels of hilarity. A must for the soul of every; Boardroom, Power-Luncher, or After-hours participant, or just to stay informed... Either way, it brings another bit of fun in the day's "Race"... it sure did for me...


License to Steal: The Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation
Published in Hardcover by Simon & Schuster (1992)
Author: Benjamin J. Stein
Amazon base price: $23.00
Used price: $0.86
Collectible price: $4.12
Buy one from zShops for: $1.73
Average review score:

Bogus
False assumptions leads one to false conclusions. The author has not done their homework in researching exactly what happened.
To say Milken precipitated the S&L crisis is simply not true and ignores the facts. But then again, authors need to sell books.
Less fodder and more critical thinking would have been appreciative.

Bogus
A loose account of innuendos woven together haphazardly without illuminating the reader with anything even remotely substantive or factual. To say Milken caused, or had anything to do with the S&L crisis, is not only wrong, it is insulting to anyone who has taken the time to study the events and understand the facts. The author has evidently decided to rely on hearsay evidence to back up pre-assumed (and ultimately false) conclusions.

Suberb story of Michael Milken, King of the Universe
The back of the book highlights are the tip of the iceberg to a great book... and is right on:

"The world of Michael Milken--a world in which he could:

*Orchestrate the creation of a whole network of federally insured saving & loans to which he could sell vastly overvalued Drexel junk bonds--at a cost of billions of dollars to depositors and taxpayers;

*Pump up from nothing an insurance company network, induce it to buy his junk bonds, and then watch it fail, throwing hundreds of thousands of policyholders into panic;

*Own a powerful stake in a prestigious bond-rating house that actually rated his own bonds;

*Take a well-regarded national chain of daycare centers and make it a captive of the Drexel machine, force-feeding it junk until it collapsed;

*Command a national network of journalists who would write that Milken was doing good works even after he was in prison.

This is the world of Michael Milken, a financial manipulator so powerful that he was, in the words of the author, Benjamin J. Stein, "...almost a force of nature." " This is a great book! Get it.

Other suberb, outstanding must reads on the Milken subject: "Den of Thieves" by James B. Stewart; and "The Predators's Ball" by Connie Bruck. Three great reads on Michael Milken. Any other recommended good books on the subject?


Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2

Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.