For those of us who long to win the lottery and to prove wrong those who say money can't bring happiness, The Luck of the Draw will disappoint.

I waited a long time for this book to arrive at my local bookstore, almost as long as I've been waiting to hit a lottery jackpot. (That still hasn't happened.) I was disappointed when I finally sat down to read it. The authors jump from story to story within paragraphs, many starting with "So-and-so of Middle of Nowhere, Kansas, found out that what glitters isn't always gold." Rarely do they go in-depth into what it is really like to win a lottery. They interviewed many winners, it seems, but haven't been told much beyond the moment the winners discover they've won the jackpot and pick up their tickets. Most of the people who win lotteries do the same thing with their earnings: buy a new car, a new house, settle debts, go on a trip. Then they disappear from sight. Who cares! Buy lottery tickets instead of this book -- you'll be happier even if none of the tickets is a winner.

I've always been interested in what it would be like to be a millionaire. Well now I know. Lottery winners aren't always REAL winners, some are wieners. But it is the writing of Gudgeon and Stewart that really made this book an enjoyable read for anyone. Few writers (think Dave Barry) possess the combination of razor wit and warm humour like Gudgeon and Stewart. This book is like a lottery ticket - you can't win if you don't have it.

A fast, funny read that told me everything I wanted to know about lotteries, their winners and losers - and then some. Part history, part comedy, this book was always entertaining and engaging. A great gift for anyone who plays the lottery or who just enjoys a good, easy read.

I think that the author of this book really streched for material. He also added to much artwork. The up side to this book is the fact that it adds a little finess to mage.

Forget Revised, this is what the game is really about. A generic setting in which you can launch a game in any time, any where, with any who. The revisions made from visionary-but-glitchy First edition make it much clearer and smoother to run.

Has everything you need to start an Ascension War chronicle (whether you want to get involved in the War or not is another matter), including details on the Technocracy, governments, secret organisations, the Umbra, the Digital Web, and a little on history.

Magick is appropriately powerful, and the game flows much more than the "crunchier" games like Vampire or Werewolf. It's a harder game than those, requiring more in the way of maturity and intelligence, but far more rewarding. And you don't have to play some kind of freaky monster.

I got this book in the hope that Stewart would have corrected the errors he made in his two previous novels.

Others have described the outline of the plot which is just about plausible, but only just.

However, as a former military pilot I found that I couldn't get over the many basic errors and mistakes that the author made is describing simple flight manouvres and even naming elements of an airfield. We also encounter a world first in this novel, and that is a compass containing more than 360 degrees. Truly marvelous. Add to that the frequent occasions when pilots bank sharply left to turn through a mere 45 degrees to the right ... yeah, like every pilot will go the long way round the compass dial.

I found the errors, both technical and in English so distracting that my potential enjoyment of this novel was eroded sharply. The spelling is extremely dubious in places (even excusing Americanisms), the grammar is truly appalling, and characters, aircraft, locations even change name or other details within a chapter. Very SLOPPY editing has let this writer down. If the editors can't understand military flying, they should employ someone who does. In addition, it is quite clear that too much reliance has been placed on computer spell-checkers, with the result that homonyms have cropped-up where lucky, otherwise some totally random (but correctly spelt) word appears, which is good for a laugh if nothing else. My overall feeling is that the production quality of this book is an insult to its readers.

The last time I stayed up all night to read a novel was Clancy's Hunt for Red October. I lost another nights sleep on the Third Consequence. And I felt even better about it.

This book by Chris Stewart is a great read for someone who enjoys books that intertwine global politics with military technology and strategy.

There are some parts of the book that could be improved through some better editing.

However, Stewart's experience in the cockpit and his knowledge of Stealth technology was conveyed in this novel.

I plan to read his other books and highly recommend this book.

The second edition of this outstanding guidebook has been produced by people who were rightly content in general terms with the style and content of the first. Twelve pages of colour photographs have been added - calculated more to increase sales than to be of use to the traveller on the road.

Of the three sections, Part One, The Basics and Part Three, Contexts, are little changed. Between them, Part Two, The Guide, at 1005 pages is 76 pages longer. Regions which get an increase of twenty per cent or more are Dongbei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hong Kong and Macau.

A few new routes have been added, including the roads from Chengdu to Shaanxi and from Mangshi south-east along the Burma border. The book notes the opening of western Sichuan and north-western Yunnan, but unfortunately and oddly provides little information about these important regions. In fact there is very little mention of a vast tract stretching generally south from the Xining-Lhasa road, through Qinghai, the Tibetan "Autonomous" Region and western Sichuan to north-western Yunnan.

Although that region warrants much more attention, it is inevitable that there will be some substantial regions that do receive little or no attention. All of north-eastern Sichuan/Chongqing, for example, is a blank. Perhaps it deserves to be; but a traveller is unlikely to find out unless he ventures there and explores for himself. This raises another unfortunate omission - any comprehensive account of which parts of China are still closed to foreign visitors without special permits. That matter is of little importance to travellers wishing to visit the "sights" listed in this guidebook, because few of those "sights" are in closed areas. That is, I expect, why the whole matter of what is closed amounts almost to a non-issue for the popular guidebooks. But it is certainly of importance to the traveller who, having reached this or that province with the help of a guidebook, wishes to go off to see what is in one of the blank areas. Comprehensive lists of what is closed are available, but hard to get, and available nowhere that I know of in English. Such a list, or better still a map of China showing the counties which are closed would be invaluable. That is exactly the kind of information that a guidebook of this kind should provide.

The great majority of the changes in this edition are in the detail - admission prices, opening hours, accommodation addresses and prices. Whether the new information is accurate will have to wait for on-the-road testing. But the very large number of detailed changes suggests that the revision has been thorough.

There is, of course, the usual and almost inevitable smattering of errors - Dehong described as an "Autonomous Region" (it is an autonomous prefecture) at page 810, Hubei abutting Sichuan (p503: it used to, but not since Chongqing was excised from Sichuan province in about 1997), the map on p773 showing part of Guanxi as incorporated in Guizhou province, Anhui not named on the map at p470, Macau omitted from the table of contents. An important error is the map on p898, showing the "Desert Highway" across the Taklamakan as joining the southern highway at Khotan, more than three hundred kilometres west of the actual junction, which is east of Minfeng (Niya).

I would have liked to see more attention to the regional maps rather than the twelve pages of pictures. The maps are, on the whole for their given scope, reasonably well done, fitting in well with the text. Their scale bars are sometimes awry, and maps of adjoining regions are sometimes incompatible - most notably the map of the north-west, which does not fit with the other maps at any scale.

So now I come to another special plea. Planning a trip through several regions calls for an overall map. In times gone by, fold-out or loose sheet maps were sometimes provided with guidebooks. Perhaps the practice was abandoned on the grounds of cost; it was not abandoned for lack of usefulness. Of course separate maps are available, but they are much less useful than a map would be if specially prepared for a particular guidebook - less useful because they include so many places not mentioned in the book, omit some that are, and in China may even use different names. After wrestling with adjustments to scales different from those indicated by scale bars I produced a single map of China from the regional maps in the new Rough Guide, and a most useful map it is for use in conjunction with the book.

When next I travel to China, the new edition of the Rough Guide will be the one I shall take, supplemented where needed and possible by information from other sources. ()

The book describes in detail almost everything one needs to know about going to China. From reccomending large 5 star hotels to Yurts in out of the way villages, the Rough Guide helps you get there the way you want to get there. The guide is so detailed that it even reccomended a small village in the middle of Inner Mongolia called Zhaohe. I went there and found it to be what the guide promised...out of the way and no tourists. Invaluable information such as this makes traveling in an already crowded China more rewarding and interesting.

I am just back from a week in China. Unlike my normal travels this time I stayed in luxury hotels and had arranged transport. Therefore I did not depend on the guide to tell me which bus to take from which museum etc ( at any rate a painful thing to do with most guides and something to be explored much more easily locally).

The guide was superb in giving condensed information on the places we have visited ( Beijing, Xi'An and Shanghai) and enabled us to do all the planning of what we wanted to do and wanted to see whilst travelling. I found the information on markets and shopping to be very accurate and, most enjoyable, for all the markets, places of interest, restaurants, hotels etc. the guide had the names in Cihinese characters as well, so that we could tell our driver or the taxidriver where to go.

Also the general information on history and culture where quite interesting and gave another dimension to our short and unplanned trip. All in all well worth the value.

One tip; the guide has for all the hotels the listed prices. Through the Internet or with frequent flyer cards you can get up to 60% discounts even in the big hotels like Sheraton and Hilton.

Martha has proven once again that her books are NOT for those who have a modest and realistic budget for their wedding. The price of her book is the indication. Don't bother spending $75 for her book full of old ideas, go out and window shop at your local bridal show. Looking for timeless ideas? You can look somewhere else for a lot cheaper price.

Gaby deLourdes-Renoir reviews(a Top-10 Amazon.com reviewer) made us love Martha Steward books. "Wedding" is full of extraordinary pictures. You just dream you were there! Will your daughter ever know such beautiful moments? Martha Steward helps you to think "yes" as an answer. Just because she explains you how to cut into small pieces a huge "wedding-cake" (the wedding party you will have to organize). Chapters are divided into specific subjects that can easily be handled by one specific responsible in your family. In the "lightning" chapter, you will discover through artistic (and useful) pictures how to create a cheap impressive range of lights in the garden with yellow paper bags and ordinary candles. All chapters include bright ideas for beautiful people (like you and me...). I love books that make me feel "I can do it". Especially when they show me beautiful people a a help in the identification process.

I always manage to find some idea in all of Martha Stewart's books that I can make my own. I have used the wedding books to make both anniversary and wedding cakes and find the instructions to be detailed and easy to follow. Everyone raves about my chocolate cake with chocolate curls, both taken from the instructions for the groom's cake. My son is getting married soon and we have kept the wedding costs for below $3000.00, including the caterer, by using many of the ideas I have gotten from this book!

I am a big Martha fan, but I was very disappointed with this product. It was not nearly large enough to hold all my receipts and contracts. Also my bridal party was large, and there was not enough space for all the information about them. It comes with a slipcover, but my planner was bulging with so many papers, I could never fit it back into it! The book itself is lovely, with a pretty cover and beautiful pictures. But it isn't useful for brides in the real world.

Ok - so not all of us can have a "Martha" type wedding... However, a lot of her ideas were extremely helpful in that they helped me decide what I did and did not want for our wedding. It also helped me stay completely organized; I could go back to my Planner and see what someone quoted me, or when payment was due on anything. This book compliments her "Weddings" book, which also has great recipes in it. I have also given this book to my girlfriends who are getting married -- they love it too. Buy it!

Although I was not having the "traditional" wedding, Martha Stewart's Wedding Planner was a great help! My mother used a wedding planner book, and this was the best one we could find. Some of the items were not applicable, but the basic ideas were, and it really helped me stay organized. No pockets in ANY wedding planner book would be big enough for all quotes, so don't be turned off by that. My mother and I had a great time filling out the pages -- I really liked the book. I suggest you buy it even if you're having a wedding at home...because you'll have all those memories in that special book of your special day.

While there are a few new things in this book, there is no call to take a $50 book, put it in a $100 box, and expect good reviews. Instead buy Ferrari P3/412P by Huet and Carrieri, Ferrari P 1961-1973 by Cassuci, or the simple paperback Ferrari 'P' Series by Beehl. Marasca's book would be an excellent buy in ordinary hardback at a reasonable price. I kept a copy simply because of a replica under construction.