The spiral binding is a big mistake! For a passionate book lover like me, it is pain to see the pages get crumpled so quick!
The modularized content is nice.

I used this textbook for a 101- class course, and my experience was excellent. I had to read the entire book in less than five weeks for my course, and reading was a pleasure. It is easy to read, easy to understand, informative and fresh, and even has little jokes here and there for the reader's pleasure. Literally the best textbook I've ever used.

I recommend this book highly as it has helped me when looking for another job and at performance evaluation time. The book contains information that explains why putting a skills portfolio together is helpful and explains ways of doing it. Every individual skills portfolio will be set up different, but they give you some good ideas and guidance on how to design your own and use it to your advantage. It proved to be a lot less time consuming then I thought it would be. I first learned of this book at a workshop during a conference put on by the International Association of Administrative Professionals (at that time the organization was called Professional Secretaries International). Another member in my chapter also put together a skills portfolio and had excellent results as well when interviewing. You do truly "blow people away" when you have thought enough to spend the time to put together your accomplishments, examples of your work, involvement in a professional organization etc. It can mean getting a bigger raise or higher starting salary when interviewing. Another book I would highly recommend is unfortunately out of print, but very beneficial to a job seeker in the administrative field. It's title is The Complete Job-Finding Guide for Secretaries and Administrative Support Staff. It is the only book that focuses on our field that I have discovered. I also learned about this book through Professional Secretaries International.

This book is great for anyone taking an AP Psychology course that uses Psychology By David Myers. This book helps by giving you the main information that you need to halp you understand the concepts in Psychology. It gives you chapter review tests, questions that might appear as essays on the AP Exam. These 2 books are not specifically made for the AP exam but they are very helpful to learning the course.

This book includes general exercises on discovering your skills, determining the kind of job you want, doing research, and creating on-line resumes, cover letters,and personal cyber-commercials. Tools for keeping organized such as cyber address books, a URL log, and a flow chart are emphasized. An appendix discusses Internet basics. (This review appeared in the Annotated Bibliography of Learning A Living, A Guide to Planning Your Career and Finding A Job for People with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia)

Once again, Brian Livingston and Davis Straub have put together their complete knowledge of Windows 95, a great book. Accessible as well to those who "knows" as to those who don't know that much.

Author did a good job on norheastern states but forgets the rest of the country.Also I've noticed a few mistakes trying to match the pictures with the value guide.

Nice book, but wish it would incorporate all US areas. Quite some mistakes when trying to assign values to the trays. Would like to see values with description and picture instead of in index. Also, an alphabetical index by brewery name would be very helpful. Overall, very nice book for a beer memorabilia collector.

A good book, but limited to the northeast states. It would be nice if this was mentioned in the title, because if you're looking for the major breweries operating today, you're not going to find them. It would also be nice if the history (ie. years of operation) of the breweries was included. This being said, it is a valuable book for the tray collector, and enjoyable to browze.

I first encountered Peter Straub while in college. I read Ghost Story on a whim and WOW! Was I scared! Julia being the second Straub book I've read I expected the same horror. In some ways the horror was recreated but in the same sense Julia the main character was extremely weak and almost pathetic. I found myself disliking her and became as confused as she was by the end of the book. What carried me along was the sense that I needed to see if it would all be explained. The last few chapters of the book left me lost and slightly annoyed. I must have re-read them at least three times trying to see if in fact I missed something -- sadly after reading the reviews from other readers I guess I didn't. Maybe that is the point of Julia: the story is strange and leaves all of the characters puzzeled and unsure of the reality that surrounds them. I felt the same way and perhaps that is the true horror of the story.

This early book by Peter Straub is in one way very different from his later novels: It is very, very short. Just over 200 pages, making for a quick read. After his first two novels which I found really, really bad (Marriages and Under Venus, check reviews there) this was clearly an improvement. The problem with this novel is: Straub couldn't decide whether to write a ghost story (no pun intended) or a psychological drama. If you want to see how you mix these genres in a brillant way, check out Shirey Jackson's masterpiece "The Haunting of Hill House". Back to this book. It's an ok ghost novel, although the haunting scenes could be a little bit more eerie and the drawing of the characters is much better in Straub's later novels. I'm not quite sure why this novel kicked off his career, although I'm glad: Maybe he wouldn't have written GHOST STORY if JULIA had flopped. BTW, the film version "The Haunting of Julia" aka "Full Circle" is worth watching if you have read the book. It is rather faithful to it, although it kills off one of the main characters who "survives" the novel. See, a lukewarm review for a lukewarm novel. If you have better stuff to read, read that first, but check it out if you like the books of Peter Straub. Review by Oliver Naujoks, Marburg/Germany.

The book begins with a seemingly innocent scene: Julia Lofting, an attractive American in London struggling to reclaim her independence and begin a new life away from her domineering husband, catches a glimpse of a little, blond-haired girl. What normally would be an unremarkable moment has deep meaning for Julia, as this child resembles Kate, Julia's deceased daughter. Kate's death has never ceased to haunt Julia and it is also from this memory that she wishes to flee.

Almost immediately, Julia has very strange experiences in her new home as well as with the mysterious blond child. Julia attempts to make meaning of these events and at times doubts her sanity. Her struggle to understand it made more difficult by accidentally discovering the details of a gruesome murder of the past which took place in her new home. A murder, which parallels horrifyingly close to Julia's own life. As Julia learns more, she discovers a presence of evil which is determined to destroy her.

Readers of the author's previous work will find the action in this book to be higher paced, which is suitable to the story. The plot never drags and is always interesting. The characters are strong and very real. The author has also done an excellent job of creating an eerie and, at times, surrealistic atmosphere which adds to the terror of the story.

This is by far one of the best horror novels ever published. I recommend it to anyone interested in a frightening tale.

I thought I was buying a book written by Mary Higgins Clark. I am one of her biggest fans. The short stories were pointless and poorly written. One story was written by Mary Higgins Clark and even that was pointless. On a scale of 1 to 5, this rates a 0.

This twelve-story anthology loosely focuses on the title, MURDER IN THE FAMILY. Though the tales are well written, they lack the suspense and cutting edge expected of this famous group of popular authors that contributed to the collection and that of previous short story books produced by the Adams Round Table. For most mystery readers, previous Adams Round Table editions are stronger (see MURDER AMONG FRIENDS, etc.). However, die hard fans of Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Stanley Cohen, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Mickey Friedman, Joyce Harrington, Susan Isaacs, Judith Kelman, Warren Murphy, Justin Scott, Peter Straub, and Whitley Strieber will want to read the tales. Yet even the strongest of loyalists need to keep the expectations a bit lower than usual as the gaggle of writers fall short of what each one usually provides.

Harriet Klausner

Lawrence Block, et.al.'s Murder In The Family packs in high-profile mystery writers whose new presentations have not seen print elsewhere. Mary Higgins Clark probes a father's motivation for revenge, Susan Isaacs presents a chilling portrait of a family which should not be in business, and Dorothy Davis tells of a letter which transforms lives in this excellent collection.

I have been an avid reader of Peter Straub ever since I read his amazing novel "Ghost Story". Unfortunately, however, of all the novels I've read since, I've only found two ("Shadowlands" and "If You Could See Me Now") to be even remotely comparable. I still read him in hopes of finding a third.

Mr. X starts out quite well...I was thinking that this one might be the next gem. But it quickly becomes confusing and contrived. Characters are thrown in, it seems, for good measure and there's way too many of them. In fact, during the latter half of the book, I found myself wondering what exactly the point was to Robert, his "other half". Although staged as a main character, he seems to have very little relevance. But maybe I just missed it. I did doze off quite a few times while reading.

If you want a creepy, well written horror novel, read "Ghost Story", "Shadowlands", or "If you Could See Me Now(all, I think, far better than anything Stephen King's ever written). If you want semi-creepy, semi-well written, read "Floating Dragon", "The Hellfire Club", or "Julia". Otherwise, stay away from Straub. His good stuff is really good. His bad stuff is really bad.

Okay, somebody tell me why an author would want to take a reader through almost 500 pages of a book and then coyingly tell them at the end, "I'm not going to resolve this book...you do it for me!" I had just encountered this in Stephen Dobyns' "Boy in the Water," and frankly, I'm tired of spending time with could have been a very good book only to get ripped off at the end. Peter Straub is a great writer, no doubt. "Ghost Story" and "Floating Dragon" are two of my favorite tales of horror. "Mr. X" is a fascinating rollercoaster ride; I admit it's intricacies and complexities are well-constructed and ultimately fascinating. The characters are interesting, although sometimes I feel Straub is playing with us again and making us fill in some of the missing blanks. Why were the Dunstans cursed? Who cursed them? Is there really a Ned or a Robert? Are they one and the same? What is it with the monster baby at the end? And what do the final two pages really mean? Many of the customer reviews agree with me in many ways; the ones who rave about it obviously read something more in the book than me. Perhaps Mr. Straub is planning a sequel or two: "Mr. Y" and "Mr. Z". If so, please resolve your book and stop letting your literary genius swell your head so bad that you forgot who made you popular in the first place---US!

I began reading Peter Straub books with the book "Ghost Story". I read it because my mother told me it was ultimately frightening, and I found that she was correct. It was intricate, and the plot was well done, but most, the characters were well developed and pleasing. After I finished that one, I began to read his books one after the other, and what I found was that his "Under Venus" through "Shadowland" age was his shining moments. Each one of the books in that period was almost as pleasing as "Ghost Story". However, the few books following that, "Koko", and "Mystery" for example, lost what makes Straub so intriguing: his excellent writing style. These books were enjoyable, though not as pleasing to the senses. Lately, with "The Throat" and most of all by far, "The Hellfire Club", Peter Straub lost everything going for him, and sank to the levels of Dean Koontz, with overly described gore and rape, etc. However, "Mr. X" finally puts an end to that. The book, I found, stands up right beside his earlier books, "Ghost Story" and "If You Could See Me Now" being his best. The character is well thought, likeable, human. The plot is simple and pieced together orderly, one of the things he lost in later books. The writing style is so fluent and beautiful that I finally enjoy one of his books. This book is for those of you who prefer the adult, mature, thought-provoking Straub, and is a good starting place for any curious, new Straub readers. This book is not for those of you who are looking for simple, "book candy", not requiring much thought or vocabulary. This book is for those of you looking to read difficult, well-written fiction.